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I think I'm missing something here. I did a little reading and pretty much every person I read said that yes you can do it, but it will run slower, crash randomly, not boot, on and on and on. The consensus was basically either use serious computer wizardry to clean the system and even then still probably fail or just reformat/reinstall Windows. So...huh? When you say I don't need to reformat does that mean no reformat and no Windows reinstall? As in just turn of, replace parts, turn on? But back to my original question, if I just disconnect E, reformat C, reconnect E, play games will it still be fine? Or should I really uninstall/reinstall everything or does losing the registry cause damage?
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Dec 15, 2010 07:19
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Travic posted:I think I'm missing something here. I did a little reading and pretty much every person I read said that yes you can do it, but it will run slower, crash randomly, not boot, on and on and on. This used to be true if you did something like switch the HAL out from under the system in XP (say, if you were going from ACPI uniproc to ACPI multiproc to take advantage of those newfangled "dual cores"). With Windows, you can't cleanly switch out the HAL without reinstalling, and if you reinstall you might as well reformat. However, with Win7 and Vista, that's not really a concern any more - the only time you need to reinstall is if you want to switch from x64 to x86 for some reason. You'll need to reinstall to go from x86 to x64, as well, but a 64-bit system will boot and run just fine in 32-bit mode. Generally speaking, you're fine with just turning off the system, replacing parts, and booting it back up. The only major stumbling block might be if the necessary storage controller drivers are disabled for some reason - say, your old system was IDE, and the new system is AHCI. In that case, even if you can't just switch things over in BIOS setup, you should be able to fix it with the Vista/7 disc's "oh god my computer won't boot, fix it for me" utility.
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Dec 15, 2010 07:39
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I'm getting sick of the 2 50-foot ethernet cables running across the middle of the living room and into my bedroom and my roommates bedroom. So it's time to go wireless! Is something like this good enough? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320049 or would something like a PCI card be more appropriate? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127219 Last time I attempted wireless networking on a desktop computer was years ago and it was pretty wonky and bad for online games. However, my laptop plays WoW and other online games with minimal latency so I guess tech has come a long way. LuckyCat fucked around with this message at 09:46 on Dec 15, 2010 |
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Dec 15, 2010 09:39
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I've used a $20 Rosewill USB WiFi-N adapter for over a year, and it certainly hasn't held me back in anything. I do make sure to hook up any storage devices to a different root hub so it gets a whole 480 Mb/s all to itself. Relatedly, a question: If you bridge two network connections in Windows 7, they operate at the maximum rate of the slower one. This has me doing file transfers at 300 Mb/s (the max of my WiFi connection) instead of the 1000 Mb/s that is the actual wire-based link between the computers. Is there any way around this until I put in some actual cable, other than breaking the bridge? e: oddly, the wireless is only a 150 Mb/s adapter, so why is the bridge twice that to begin with? Factory Factory fucked around with this message at 11:53 on Dec 15, 2010 |
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Dec 15, 2010 11:50
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Travic posted:I think I'm missing something here. I did a little reading and pretty much every person I read said that yes you can do it, but it will run slower, crash randomly, not boot, on and on and on. Well see, you never needed to reformat. The most drastic you ever had to do was a repair install, which is different from a reinstall since it leaves most stuff intact. The problem is, there's a lot of websites out there that have for years advised people to reformat every 3 months "just because" since "Windows will slow down if you don't reformat!!" which is basically cargo cult nonsense. So of course those selfsame sites will tell you major hardware changes means reformatting. There's no reason you'd need to disconnect E to reformat C, and unless your games are Steam games, having the registry wiped means you'll have to reinstall them anyway. Space Gopher posted:This used to be true if you did something like switch the HAL out from under the system in XP (say, if you were going from ACPI uniproc to ACPI multiproc to take advantage of those newfangled "dual cores"). With Windows, you can't cleanly switch out the HAL without reinstalling, and if you reinstall you might as well reformat. However, with Win7 and Vista, that's not really a concern any more - the only time you need to reinstall is if you want to switch from x64 to x86 for some reason. You'll need to reinstall to go from x86 to x64, as well, but a 64-bit system will boot and run just fine in 32-bit mode. Well you can force Windows to recreate the HAL in 2000 and XP by going to Device Manager and "Uninstall" or "Remove" on the Processor, Motherboard and Chipset devices and drivers. When you next boot it notices the HAL is now invalid, and it wants you to put in your XP CD and any media necessary for proper drivers that aren't on the CD, and then it rebuilds the HAL. This can also be done by launching a Repair install from the XP CD.
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Dec 15, 2010 16:45
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I'm afraid I don't know what HAL or ACPI are.
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Dec 15, 2010 18:10
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madprocess posted:Well you can force Windows to recreate the HAL in 2000 and XP by going to Device Manager and "Uninstall" or "Remove" on the Processor, Motherboard and Chipset devices and drivers. When you next boot it notices the HAL is now invalid, and it wants you to put in your XP CD and any media necessary for proper drivers that aren't on the CD, and then it rebuilds the HAL. This can also be done by launching a Repair install from the XP CD. I've done it, and I've seen problems (typically in the chipset or video drivers) that went away after a full reinstall or full repair installation. Of course, that was on XP; Vista and 7 don't really have those issues. The only time you care about switching out the HAL, you'll have to reinstall the whole OS anyway. Travic posted:I'm afraid I don't know what HAL or ACPI are. Short answer: irrelevant to your situation. "HAL" is short for "Hardware Abstraction Layer," which more or less underlies a lot of kernel-mode code; it lets the kernel operate without worrying too much about low-level hardware details. XP and earlier versions of NT allowed for several different HALs. With Vista and 7, you don't have to worry about it, because there's really only one HAL for each supported architecture. "ACPI" is the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, a standard which replaced an ugly mess of power and plug-and-play configuration standards. XP supported both the old standards and ACPI, and used different HALs to do it; trying to go between them is the classic source of "HAL hell." There are also different HALs in XP for single-core-only systems, multicore-capable systems that are only running a single core, and true multicore systems. Switching between them is usually possible, but can cause subtle errors. Vista and 7 dispensed with this - ACPI is a requirement, and single-core systems just get to use the same multiprocessor HAL and kernel as everybody else. As a result, it's almost always safe to just pull out the old hardware, and drop the new stuff in.
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Dec 15, 2010 22:40
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Travic posted:New motherboard/processor. I just installed a new motherboard, processor and gpu. I simply moved my hd:s over (one with vista and one with win7), made sure it would boot from the correct hd and booted into win7. It recognized all the new hardware and installed the correct drivers without any problems. Booting in to vista was a bit more problematic since my vista install (that I haven't booted into in six months) lacked a few drivers. But getting the necessary drivers off the bundled cd or the net wasn't exactly difficult. So no need for format/reinstall 
"Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more
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Dec 16, 2010 13:54
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I have run into situations where swapping the motherboard and CPU without a re-install led to BSODs with Windows XP. IIRC it was when switching to-from Intel and AMD-based motherboards.
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Dec 16, 2010 20:08
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PBCrunch posted:I have run into situations where swapping the motherboard and CPU without a re-install led to BSODs with Windows XP. IIRC it was when switching to-from Intel and AMD-based motherboards. Yeah, on XP when going between CPU manufacturers you need to go to device manager and delete the processor and uninstall it, or run a repair install.
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Dec 16, 2010 20:15
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PBCrunch posted:I have run into situations where swapping the motherboard and CPU without a re-install led to BSODs with Windows XP. IIRC it was when switching to-from Intel and AMD-based motherboards.  I'm switching from a Dual core AMD to a Quad core Intel. poo poo beans madprocess posted:...unless your games are Steam games, having the registry wiped means you'll have to reinstall them anyway. Most of my game on that drive are Steam actually.
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Dec 17, 2010 02:51
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I run an Athlon 2 x2 3ghz currently. I ordered a Phenom 2 x4 3.4ghz processor, and it won't boot past the windows loading screen. It will run fine in BIOS or memtest forever until I go to boot, or run startup repair, or try a new install. Also, when I was poking around in my case, I found out that moving a wire causes the machine to reset. Probably the power supply, as the motherboard is pretty new(~3 months). Is my intuition correct, or is there something else I should be looking at?
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Dec 17, 2010 04:37
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I'm thinking of buying an E-book reader I'm looking at the "Sony Reader PRS-650 Touch Edition" as a gift to someone else. Is this a good choice? I know so very little about e-book readers
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Dec 17, 2010 12:10
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Zzulu posted:I'm thinking of buying an E-book reader IF you buy someone a 3G Kindle ($190) or Nook ($200), you can rest assured they'll never have to deal with setting anything up other than their credit card info to buy books. If you buy them a Wifi Kindle ($140) or Nook ($159), then assuming they do have a home wifi network, it's the same deal. If you buy them the Sony Reader, well, you're paying $20 to $30 more than 3G Kindle/Nook, plus they HAVE to set up software on their computer to get books on there. Not to mention the Sony store is a lot smaller and books are usually more expensive there. I would personally definitely recommend a Kindle, as it has the best store and screen and price, and go for the 3G one if there's any question about them having a wifi network.
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Dec 17, 2010 12:47
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I read somewhere that the kindle e-books only have English libraries. The person I'm buying the ebook for would prefer it in another language, and I heard the Sony libraries have a varied range of international stuff Then there's the fact that I can't seem to find any Kindles selling in my country 
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Dec 17, 2010 13:30
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I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit on my current HDD. How would I be able to transfer it to my new PC without reinstalling Windows 7? I'm assuming I go to device manager and uninstall every driver I see there prior to moving my HDD with Win7?
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Dec 17, 2010 14:39
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Starpluck posted:I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit on my current HDD. How would I be able to transfer it to my new PC without reinstalling Windows 7? Try simply putting it in the other computer first. If it boots up fine, then great, just wait for it gather all the new drivers it needs and you're golden. If it doesn't work, put it back in the old computer and uninstall the old drivers, then put it in the new computer again.
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Dec 17, 2010 15:34
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My mom is having problems with her computer - everything is slow and windows have the stutter effect when minimizing. She's rebooted and I ran through some support I could offer over the phone: defrag, disk check, etc... We don't live in the same state but she's visiting my sister for the holidays, and her husband is pretty savvy. He suggested reinstalling Windows and offered to do it for my mom if she brings her computer with her. I suggested having him run Memtest prior to reinstalling Windows in case that proves to be the problem. So my question: If it is the RAM, will reinstalling Windows have any effect on how the RAM performs?
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Dec 17, 2010 15:56
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Does anyone have a recommendation of where I should look to rent a decent gaming laptop for a few months? I'm going to be traveling across the country on business and will be working for 2 months at a client site, and staying in a hotel. My work laptop is great, but It can only be used for work, as it gets audited by our I.T. department, so explaining what Steam or Call of Duty is would be something I would rather avoid. At home I have a great Desktop, and don't really want to buy ANOTHER laptop for myself. I just want to game during the weekends and off hours.
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Dec 17, 2010 16:00
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Chinaski posted:So my question: If it is the RAM, will reinstalling Windows have any effect on how the RAM performs? No, but if you test the RAM and it's bad, you don't want to reinstall Windows with it.
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Dec 17, 2010 16:24
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Anyone know if the HP xw8200 workstation will take dual core Xeons?
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Dec 17, 2010 16:46
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Steve Moore posted:No, but if you test the RAM and it's bad, you don't want to reinstall Windows with it. Thanks - that's what I thought but I didn't want to suggest it without confirmation.
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Dec 17, 2010 16:58
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madprocess posted:Try simply putting it in the other computer first. If it boots up fine, then great, just wait for it gather all the new drivers it needs and you're golden. Oh it's that simple? So Windows 7 wont confuse any of my new drivers with my old ones etc.? And if I have to uninstall, which drivers should I uninstall? Everything will be new
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Dec 17, 2010 18:35
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Starpluck posted:Oh it's that simple? So Windows 7 wont confuse any of my new drivers with my old ones etc.? What almost always happens in 7, is, it boots up on new hardware, realizes the drivers there ain't matching, disables and uninstall them, and then installs the correct ones. Moving from certain weird configs to certain other weird configs can cause it to not boot, but a repair operation off the 7 DVD should fix that up easy.
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Dec 17, 2010 18:38
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Can someone recommend a gpu usage overlay program? I have a msi 4890 card. I tried Msi afterburner but it keeps turning the overlay off.
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Dec 17, 2010 20:32
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I'm having a problem with my secondary hard drive. It keeps disconnecting from Windows, like one second it'll be listed under my computer and then it will disappear and not return until I reboot the computer. Also, sometimes when I boot the computer it gets stuck on the BIOS screen trying to detect the hard drives. So far I've run HDD Sentinel and the health of the drive is perfect, so I am thinking that it is either a bad connection with the drive or an issue with the motherboard (but I would think that would affect my primary drive as well). I also know it isn't an issue with my PSU. Any advice on what I can do? Tonight I'm going to switch out SATA cables and have it attach to another SATA port on the motherboard. I'll probably switch the power cable as well just to be safe.
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Dec 18, 2010 00:20
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I'm looking at the Dell Precision 670 workstation and its memory layout. It's documented as having a max memory of 16GB yet it only has 6 slots. I guess 4x4GB would be 16 with 2 unfilled. Does anyone know if 4 slots would be optimum or if its a triple channel type? Its an older netburst architecture.
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Dec 18, 2010 02:42
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Shaocaholica posted:I'm looking at the Dell Precision 670 workstation and its memory layout. It's documented as having a max memory of 16GB yet it only has 6 slots. I guess 4x4GB would be 16 with 2 unfilled. Does anyone know if 4 slots would be optimum or if its a triple channel type? Its an older netburst architecture. IIRC 670s have three dual-channel memory lanes. We filled ours with 2x4GB each and they've been fine. My guess is that Dell never envisioned 4GB DDR2 modules, so they instead designed it with more slots. e: oh by the way the BIOS is really picky on those things, each channel needs to have exactly matching modules and if you have more than 4(?) GB of RAM it won't boot and tell you that you need to install a memory fan. The header is pretty close to the RAM slots and I think the mount is the same as the vents over the processors. Quebec Bagnet fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Dec 18, 2010 |
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Dec 18, 2010 03:07
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Anyone know if there is a wireless adapter you can use with the xbox 360 other than the ludicrously expensive official MS one?
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Dec 18, 2010 03:49
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DanManIt posted:I'm having a problem with my secondary hard drive. Not detecting in BIOS is usually pretty bad news. That means at the lowest level of interaction the drive is not functioning. Swap the cable out, try another port, but if that doesn't work then your drive is probably bad. GruntyThrst posted:Anyone know if there is a wireless adapter you can use with the xbox 360 other than the ludicrously expensive official MS one? USB, I don't think so. You can use any number of wireless gaming adapters though that will connect via Ethernet at half the cost.
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Dec 18, 2010 04:27
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I just switched my SATA hard drive from IDE mode to AHCI using these instructions. Everything seemed to work fine, but I'm wondering, is special software to hot swap drives necessary and/or recommended? Right now all I have is my one system drive, but before I pop in any other drive to test the hot swapping I want to be fully prepared. OS is Windows 7, motherboard is ASUS P7P55D.
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Dec 18, 2010 05:10
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Derpes Simplex posted:IIRC 670s have three dual-channel memory lanes. We filled ours with 2x4GB each and they've been fine. My guess is that Dell never envisioned 4GB DDR2 modules, so they instead designed it with more slots. I just read the manual a bit more carefully and it seems that you can only use 4 slots if you use dual bank memory. Thats fine for me. About the memory fan. It seems like the Dell unit is super expensive. Do you have one? I'd like to know what the pin layout is so I can use any after market fan. I've read it also works by putting a load between the 2 side pins on the header.
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Dec 18, 2010 18:27
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Does anyone know if the Toshiba A135-xxxx laptop series all use the same LCD panel? I need a new screen for my satellite A135-S4467, and I found one on eBay. It is a WXGA 15.4" Glossy screen. I found one on Amazon that was prime elegible for a Toshiba A135-S4527, 15.4" WXGA glossy. I'd rather order from Amazon because of the fast shipping, but I want to be pretty sure it works.
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Dec 19, 2010 03:22
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I'm not quite sure where to ask this, but I suppose ACPI is a hardware standard, so I'll try here first. I have always kept my personal computers running 24/7. Sometimes this is necessary to keep torrents or something running, but often it's just because I don't want to lose my spot in a PDF or a video. Last night I realized that this is the future and there are such things as sleep states. The two main states are Sleep and Hibernate, but I'm having a difficult time understanding the difference.wikipedia posted:The advantage of sleep mode is that resuming is much quicker than for hibernation. A hibernated system must read back data to RAM on resuming, which typically takes on the order of tens of seconds, while a system in sleep mode only needs to power up CPU and display, which is almost instantaneous. On the other hand, a system in sleep mode still consumes some small amount of power, while a hibernated system does not require any power at all, and even allows the power to be completely disconnected. Therefore most systems offer both sleep mode and hibernation.
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Dec 19, 2010 03:45
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Lt Moose posted:Does anyone know if the Toshiba A135-xxxx laptop series all use the same LCD panel? I need a new screen for my satellite A135-S4467, and I found one on eBay. It is a WXGA 15.4" Glossy screen. I found one on Amazon that was prime elegible for a Toshiba A135-S4527, 15.4" WXGA glossy. I'd rather order from Amazon because of the fast shipping, but I want to be pretty sure it works. Most laptop models support a few different panels, but your best bet is to get one with the exact same part number as the old one, right down to the revision number. I don't really trust sellers to get their compatibility lists right and it's usually cheaper this way than ordering by compatibility as well. The part number should be written somewhere on the rear of the panel itself. If you order by part number, make sure you do get the exact revision number because sometimes sellers, in my experience, will flake out and send one with the right part number, but wrong revision number. This can lead to a lot of things like getting a glossy screen instead of matte, or odd behavior like garbled presentation in text mode or backwards brightness adjustment. Also, I'm not sure what prices are on Amazon, but you may consider eBay as well. Brand new 15" 1280x800 displays typically go for $80-100. Zorilla fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Dec 19, 2010 |
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Dec 19, 2010 04:32
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Richard M Nixon posted:sleep stuff Srebrenica Surprise fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Dec 19, 2010 |
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Dec 19, 2010 04:34
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Shaocaholica posted:I just read the manual a bit more carefully and it seems that you can only use 4 slots if you use dual bank memory. Thats fine for me.
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Dec 19, 2010 06:37
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What's the cheapest AM3 motherboard for overclocking?
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Dec 19, 2010 07:13
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punk rebel ecks posted:What's the cheapest AM3 motherboard for overclocking? What exactly are you looking to do? Most motherboards above the lowest bottom-of-the-barrel models will have some overclocking options, enough to play with multipliers on Black Edition chips and get some extra speed out of a non-BE CPU. If you want to overclock for the sake of overclocking, you might actually want or need one of the higher-end boards, but I'd strongly suggest Intel at that point. Or a better hobby.
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Dec 19, 2010 07:46
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Derpes Simplex posted:It's a standard 3 or 4 pin connector. We didn't have memory fans on ours either since they were both ordered with 3 GB. We had a few OptiPlexes of about the same vintage that we were parting out and I grabbed a rear case fan and connected it, which was enough to satiate the BIOS, and I left it pointing vaguely in the direction of the RAM because I had nothing to mount it on. Looking back, I don't quite recall what the mounting bracket is, it may have been a special part. I believe it's a ducting piece used to direct air out of the rear of the case with a spot to screw the fan into. I also never figured out if the fan is actually necessary for cooling or just something the BIOS wants. Just found this gem of a discussion on the topic: http://forums.cnet.com/7723-7586_102-261994-0.html?tag=rb_content;forums06 seems like its an uncommon 3 pin header with a 12v pin in a middle, ground on one side and a dumb switch on the other. The non ground pin just needs to be shorted to ground for the system to think a fan is there. I'm going to rig an arctic cooling ram fan with that connector and short both side pins. That should get me results!
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Dec 19, 2010 08:24
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