tool_462

Wilhelm, what did you upgrade from? and let me know how that card runs! It is on my list of possible cards to get this summer

/agree, i will post my address so you can mail me a random part for my birthday!

Yes, here in lies the problem...

Good choice, that PSU has been receiving great reviews from what I have seen. Good luck with it!

I think EA should just team up with Windoze and nVidia/ATI and make the Sims 2 ONLY available bundled with XP and a compatible video card

Well I did a rough calculation on your systems power consumption needs and it is roughly around 500-515 watts depending on which site I used. So if you are planning on upgrading for future, or overclocking, I would go for over 650 watts since "upgrading" from the 550 watt to another 550 or 600 is pretty much useless unless its quad rail or something. OCZ makes a very good PSU as do Enermax, Thermaltake and PC Power&Cooling. I currently am using the same PSU as yourself and I just love it. I have had two Antec PSU's die on me and was never satisfied with their noise (in general) Though I am set up in an Antec Super LanBoy which I like very much. Overall: dont "upgrade" unless it is a big enough jump to make it worth the money (though judging by your pc, you have plenty of it ) And just google for a few reviews of the top few PSU's you are interested in and check them out.

Well I did a rough calculation on your systems power consumption needs and it is roughly around 500-515 watts depending on which site I used. So if you are planning on upgrading for future, or overclocking, I would go for over 650 watts since "upgrading" from the 550 watt to another 550 or 600 is pretty much useless unless its quad rail or something. OCZ makes a very good PSU as do Enermax, Thermaltake and PC Power&Cooling. I currently am using the same PSU as yourself and I just love it. I have had two Antec PSU's die on me and was never satisfied with their noise (in general) Though I am set up in an Antec Super LanBoy which I like very much. Overall: dont "upgrade" unless it is a big enough jump to make it worth the money (though judging by your pc, you have plenty of it ) And just google for a few reviews of the top few PSU's you are interested in and check them out.

Have a strange problem here. I just reinstalled XP and reformatted my HDD's and this is what I'm getting: I plugged in my USB printer to install it and my PC froze. So I hit reset and everything worked fine. But I was moving cords and plugged my mouse (usb) back in and when I turned on the PC the mouse didn't work, another reset fixed this problem. Now I try to plug in my flash drive (Lexar 512MB) and the PC freezes as usual, but reset doesnt fix the problem. I tried all usb ports, 2 in front, 4 in back and none of them will work with the flash drive. The drive works fine on any other computer, and I have freshly installed XP so this is very strange. Celeron 2.8Ghz MicroStar MS-6714 mobo 1024 MB PC2700 memory 120 GB WD HDD 40 GB backup Seagate HDD Geforce MX4000 128mb Ultra X-Connect 500watt PSU Windows XP SP2

Says Ver: 1 right above PCI slot 1. I may or may not mess with this tonight, I just ordered a Abit NI8 SLI mobo and Pentium D 805 combo that will be the new board in the case that the MSI is in. I will probably toss the board into an old case and make an internet browsing machine for a friend, but wont worry too much about getting the USB to work. Thank you very much for the responses! Another problem fix added to my mental "hard drive"

I am almost 100% sure that is the problem then, simple wear out of the little rubber/plastic board that senses pressure. If you have ever seen on of the little rubber buttons underneath, you will understand why they are (generally) rated for either 1 or 10 million presses, building RC cars I run into a lot of switches that are rated for even less (100,000) and keypad controls have similar side effects when they begin to wear. A few friends use G15's but another awesome keyboard (I personally prefer the looks and feel) is the Saitek Eclipse. Just a thought, but its about 20-25 bucks cheaper and is a very cool looking and feeling keyboard. Available in blue and red backlit keys. http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/eclipse2.htm

I reinstalled the USB drivers first from a download, then from windows xp setup disk, but still no luck. I will try flashing the BIOS tonight probably, but I have never done it. Know of any good guides? Im sure I can find one on google if not.

It has to be something wrong with the keyboard itself, is it a well used keyboard? Seems to happen to me after a couple years of solid use. Typing a lot of papers and long emails daily. See if you can get ahold of a friends keyboard or borrow one from work and give it a try. I have never heard of a hardware issue causing something like that other than an aging keyboard. Let us know what happens! PS. You can pick up a cheap keyboard for $6-10 at walmart or target, but investing in a Logitech or Saitek is a way to prolong the life and have a very nice keyboard to type on.

I connected the plug solidly and checked it, still good. It is one of the one-piece plugs with all 8 wires connected and the one blank spot so I couldnt have inversed. I just went by what dxdiag said my mobo model was, I can check my manual. It is an online manual that comes up for an Intel 845GV v1.X motherboard.

Give this a shot if you can: http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWSME/using/computerhealth/articles/startupdisk.asp

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Hey all, I just reformatted and reinstalled XP on my system, and I reinstalled my video card and installed the drivers from the cd as usual. Then I restart and it again tells me I have found new hardware (video controller) I installed the newest drivers from Nvidia (Geforce MX4000) but the same thing happens. The card is fully functioning, being I installed CoolBits and have ran 3DMark01 many many times to test overclocking and everything works great. But it is annoying to have the window pop-up everytime I log in. Celeron 2.8Ghz Intel 845eGV mobo 1024 MB PC2700 memory 120 GB WD HDD 40 GB backup Seagate HDD Geforce MX4000 128mb Ultra X-Connect 500watt PSU Windows XP SP2

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1) I enjoy online gameplay, largely dependant on the game I am playing. Examples: World of Warcraft I cannot stand. To me, it seems the level of comprehension and thinking it takes to play a game, is directly related to the level of maturity and attitude of the game players. WoW seems to be alot of (dare I say) younger players (I am 19 so I am a young player too) that tend to beg alot more than EverQuest (the other MMORPG I have played) and the groups often dont work out due to people getting frustrated and leaving, not having enough patience to stick it out. 2) I also love offline games (depending on the game) for example: Halo2 parties are common in the dorms and are tons of fun, along with Mariokart and I love playing Fable and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion offline obviously. 3) Popular games: WoW (easy and entertaining for all ages), Guild Wars (Largely because it is free, not because it has stellar gameplay) EverQuest 1&2 (Not played 2, but 1 is very captivating and community oriented) City of Heroes/Villians (Fairly easy and fast paced) Halo2 (Kill your friends! Prove your dominance ) 4) I dislike playing sports games online, due to people being really cocky and immature. I also dont like playing glitchy games online, unless people dont cheat. (which rarely happens) Good luck with your paper!

1) I enjoy online gameplay, largely dependant on the game I am playing. Examples: World of Warcraft I cannot stand. To me, it seems the level of comprehension and thinking it takes to play a game, is directly related to the level of maturity and attitude of the game players. WoW seems to be alot of (dare I say) younger players (I am 19 so I am a young player too) that tend to beg alot more than EverQuest (the other MMORPG I have played) and the groups often dont work out due to people getting frustrated and leaving, not having enough patience to stick it out. 2) I also love offline games (depending on the game) for example: Halo2 parties are common in the dorms and are tons of fun, along with Mariokart and I love playing Fable and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion offline obviously. 3) Popular games: WoW (easy and entertaining for all ages), Guild Wars (Largely because it is free, not because it has stellar gameplay) EverQuest 1&2 (Not played 2, but 1 is very captivating and community oriented) City of Heroes/Villians (Fairly easy and fast paced) Halo2 (Kill your friends! Prove your dominance ) 4) I dislike playing sports games online, due to people being really cocky and immature. I also dont like playing glitchy games online, unless people dont cheat. (which rarely happens) Good luck with your paper!

Here is my problem, I run through the six disk floppy boot and it asks me what I want to do after disk 6 is done reading, and I hit "R" for repair and it doesnt ask me which windows install i want to log in or whatever it is called (usually I have to hit "1") but it doesnt ask. It gives me a C:\> Prompt and I have tried to run CHKDSK \R from both C:\> prompt and A:\> prompt. It says the extension or file cant be found and I type in C:\Windows\System32 and it still cant be found, I also tried C:\Windows\I386. Any clue what is going on? I have tried CMOS reset and still the same thing, it is very strange since I ran CHKDSK on this HDD less than a week ago.

I found the file on a friends boot disk and copied it to the floppy. Then I ran it from A:\> and it worked fine and im up and running again. Thanks!

i agree. It is probably as simple as them opening up a couple ports for you, a very quick and easy process. I work (work study) for my university's IT desk and we do it all the time to open ports for Xbox live and a few online video games that need special ones open.

I just installed a new motherboard and when i turn it on no video display will come up. I tried my vid card in more than one slot and originally tried it in the onboard slot with no video card in the pc. My mobo is Aopen S661GMX-U and is new. Everything else boots up like a normal boot (fans, hdd, drives, lights) but my monitor looks like its in standby. when i unplug the monitor cable while the pc is on, it makes the noise as if it was just turned off normally, both when the vga plug is in onboard or pci slot. the mobo has an 8x agp slot so could that be the problem? im not using the pci card in slot 1, but i tried it there too. I am pretty sure my mobo isnt 'doa' but who knows. Any ideas?

Being that I have tried different RAM that is known to be working and (supposedly) compatible, I am going to try a processor and see if that works. PS. Believe me, when I get my first paycheck from my summer job i will be building a new PC featuring AMD 939

So, I backed up all my stuff and tried it on a clean HDD, still nothing. But I found a post somewhere that the particular mobo claims to support my 2.8Ghz celeron, but this guy said his didnt work until he put a true pentium4 in. What makes me think this might be the problem is, if i boot with no ram in, the mobo doesnt beep as it should (am i correct) and i read that this could mean the processor isnt supported. I am going to stick a P4 2.4 in there tommorow and see if that is the problem. Anyone else heard of or have any knowledge of this situation? (Incompatible processor in a compatible socket)