Computer Troubleshooting Thread

[Altmer]

My computer loads the normal BIOS, tries to run, starts loading drivers: misses the first one, normally boots the rest, then of course flips it because it's missing a goddamn driver and says "press any key to reboot." When I try that, the same thing happens when I reboot.

It's making a lot of noise.

 

[Chronos]

@Starman: use Microsoft LiveMesh

 

[Aphelion]

My laptop is a pretty recent model, I bought it in late 2008. Anyways, the Java client on it is the most recent update, yet I am encountering a pretty uncommon problem when trying to run ShoddyBattle with it. I can connect to the Smogon Server, and I can create a team. The problem? I cannot save a team or load one. Doing either of the following results in nothing. I press Save or Load and nothing happens. The same occurs when I select Use the Team.

Any Suggestions?

thanks in advance.

oh yeah I'm using Vista if it helps at all.

 

[StarmanXL]

@Starman: use Microsoft LiveMesh

Uhm, I don't quite understand. I looked at the website but it just says it syncs my stuff and I can access it from online, and I have no idea what any of that is supposed to mean or how it's supposed to help me. Forgive me for being skeptical, but I can't afford to really install anything more on this computer, and I don't wanna use some program which I'm not sure of its function.

 

[Chronos]

You should be able to upload data to Mesh. It was just an idea for storage.
But seriously, HDs are like 20-30 bucks. It wouldn't be that bad.

 

[BlakBlastoise]

I recently bought a DELL and it came with some "trend micro internet security" thing. I have no need for that, since i have norton, so i took the liberty of deleting it from the "add/remove programs". But the damn thing is still here. It randomly pops up while i'm using my laptop. Does anyone know of what i can do to make this darn thing go away? I've tried to search on google, but all i could manage to find told me to go to add/remove programs, which i've already done.

A PM would be very appreciated, I might forget to check this.

 

[matty]

Uh, so I went to start Chatzilla up today (I was using it fine earlier today) and then I got a weird error message.

TypeError: this.commandHistory[command.name].push is not a function @ <chrome://chatzilla/content/lib/js/command-manager.js> 354
+ message (string) 'this.commandHistory[command.name].push is not a function'
+ fileName (string) 'chrome://chatzilla/content/lib/js/command-manager.js'
+ lineNumber (number) 354
+ stack (string) 535 chars
+ name (string) 'TypeError'
*

Anyone have any ideas why Chatzilla refuses to open now?

 

[gamer22]

My computer runs slow, really slow--it takes about ten minutes to get it started up, and then at least four more to run any program on a good day. In addition, it often freezes up if I try to save something in Word, run Shoddy, try to Alt + Tab, or whenever I'm doing anything, actually. I'm also having this problem where my Firewall randomly turns off and updates don't install properly on that or in Firefox (it downloads them multiple times but cannot install them). I also can't defrag it anymore, no matter how much stuff I delete from it.

After numerous scans for malware and viruses I don't think it has anything to do with malicious programs but with the computer itself. My friend suggested that I restore factory settings but I don't have the money to buy an external hard drive to back up my computer. Anyone have any suggestions?

whats your computers specs and what type of programs did you use to run scans
do you have to much programs on start up??
have you ran disk defragmenter or a disk check

edit: have you tried a system restore before your computer stuffed up
you definately have a virus if your firewall randomly turns off

 

[moot]

My laptop has 2 drives, (C:) and (D:), C has 94.1 GB and only 2.85 GB of that is still free. D however, has 46.0 GB, which are all free. I have Steam and a number of other programs saved to my C drive, so they are constantly updating and taking up more space. I wondered if it was possible to get rid of this partition and merge them into one drive?

I tried moving all of my Steam to D a while back, but after an hour of it all moving over, apparantly a file was missing, so I had to move them all back over, delete all my games and updates and download them all overnight again, so I'd prefer not to do that another time.

If it is possible to (without killing my Steam) then I could move Steam over and have the C as my general space. But there is the matter that I need to ensure that any Steam updates are copied onto D after the move, rather than them being copied to C uselessly.

Any help on this would be really appreciated, because it's really annoying me.

Cheers in advance :)

It's impossible to merge partitions without destroying all data on BOTH partitions, clearing them, and then making a new partition out of your free space. In general, what I'd reccommend is just to start clearing the stuff on your C drive that you absolutely don't need and saving stuff that you do and can transfer onto the D drive.

 

[cantab]

Do you mean physical drives, or do you mean partitions? I've never come across a laptop with two physical hard drives.

If the C and D partitions are on the same physical drive, and the D partition is directly after the C one, then you can remove the D partition (DELETING EVERYTHING ON IT), and non-destructively enlarge the C partition into the space freed up. Exactly how to do this will depend on the software you use; I don't know Windows repartitioning software.

Anybody know anything about removing a iso imaged computer operating system from a dual bootable laptop to get the original operating system back?

Possibly. I'll need to know more details. What are the operating systems, and what do you get when you boot?

EDIT: More questions answered

This isn't really a troubleshoot but how would I increase the frames per second generated in a game without lowering the graphic quality or modifying my hardware

Update your graphics card drivers. Stop as much as possible other than the game from running.

Where can I get free music downloads? I need it for my spriting vids, many people dont watch because of no music. Does anyone know where to get free music for download? It doesnt have to be good, heck EVEN the pokemon theme song!! would be ok...

http://www.dmusic.com/ has independent music.
http://www.classiccat.net/ has freely available classical recordings
You won't be able to get free downloads of most pop music legally. Totally unrelated fact ;-) despite its owners being in jail, the pirate bay reamins operational.

Not really a problem, so much as a general computer question. I recently came into a 20-year-old 27' television. I'm considering buying myself a new computer if my grades are high enough come mid-terms (as a way of motivating myself to do my work), and I found an S-video-to-RCA adapter online. Obviously this would save me a lot of money, but I'm wondering if the quality is good enough to warrant me purchasing the cable instead of an actual monitor. Has anyone here used one of these cables before?

No. That old television won't have anything like the resolution you want for computing. If you want to watch videos or play games on a bigger screen it might be good, but for web browsing and office work it won't be suitable.

My computer runs slow, really slow--it takes about ten minutes to get it started up, and then at least four more to run any program on a good day. In addition, it often freezes up if I try to save something in Word, run Shoddy, try to Alt + Tab, or whenever I'm doing anything, actually. I'm also having this problem where my Firewall randomly turns off and updates don't install properly on that or in Firefox (it downloads them multiple times but cannot install them). I also can't defrag it anymore, no matter how much stuff I delete from it.

After numerous scans for malware and viruses I don't think it has anything to do with malicious programs but with the computer itself. My friend suggested that I restore factory settings but I don't have the money to buy an external hard drive to back up my computer. Anyone have any suggestions?

That sounds exactly like a malware problem. Possibly the malware is managing to hide from the scanners. To be honest the only solution I'd use would be a reinstall - I consider a system that's at all compromised to be fully compromised. But archiving your data is a problem. You could try booting a Linux livecd and running ClamAv on your windows partition from that.
It could be due to legitimately installed software that's running (possibly in the background) at boot. But I'd say that's less likely.

 

[Broth3r]

I plan on buying a new laptop, but I don't have updated info on the market. Anyone has a good suggestion for a gaming laptop under 1200 €?

 

[Kikuichimonji]

I plan on buying a new laptop, but I don't have updated info on the market. Anyone has a good suggestion for a gaming laptop under 1200 €?

If possible, it would probably be more economical to get portability and performance in two separate machines. Netbooks start at around 200 euros and you can build a decent gaming PC for 500 euros. Throw in another hundred for a display and you're set. I'm currently using a high-end (17-inch) notebook myself and have been considering making the transition from having one machine which isn't really spectacular in terms of performance or portability to getting two machines for each task.

If you're going to get a performance notebook, you might want to get "accident insurance" or extended warranty whatever they call it, because gaming notebooks are highly prone to overheat. The machine I'm currently using died after two years plus some odd months (warranty only lasted two years), motherboard was fried and I had to pay over 200 euros to have it fixed. What caused my motherboard to die? The fact that I committed the sin of clocking both of my processor's cores at their advertised rates (2.0 GHz).

 

[Firestorm]

Well, it'd be great if someone can tell me why Shoddy has always been freezing on me.

I'd click Ice Beam, for example, and then Use. Instead of my timer stopping to tick, and my opponents starting to tick, mines stays ticking, and no damage pops up on my screen. To make sure that its not just a quick glitch, but that I froze, I type stuff into the chat-box, and yet again nothing happens. This has happened to me in every battle I have participated in.

You should try asking this in the Shoddy Battle forum.

 

[Playa]

Whenever I log onto my laptop lately it automatically hides desktop items, and even if i manage to get it to show them again they automatically hide again once i open a new window. I'm using Vista and have no idea why this is happening, so hopefully someone can help.

 

[Mountain Dewgong]

Hey, I'm trying to encode this .avi movie file into something readable by my xbox360 (ie WMV) or something readable by the DVD player at home. I downloaded the windows software, the Windows Encoder 9 and it keeps giving me this bullshit codec error (0xC00D1B83).

Can I have some help on how to fix it, or on another way to let me play this file on my xbox/DVD player. Thanks. :)

 

[Terra]

Unfortunately, when the installation of Runes Of Magic finished yesterday, i had to restart my notebook. Well, done. But then the boot-progress wasn't successful, there appeared a error like this: "(...) This error can be caused by a removable device, which is not properly connected or a faulty hardware-device which is failing (...)."

But there weren't any changes on the hardware. What should I do now?

I'm glad about any help.

 

[jckson]

I've got a toshiba laptop that won't accept the passphrase to connect to my wireless network. It gives me a error about that the key has to be 24bit encryption or something else. I'm not sure what this is telling me. My other computers in my house connect to the wireless router just fine. Anyone ever run into this problem? This is the second time I've had this problem with a toshiba laptop and I'm not quite sure how to get it resolved. Thanks

 

[Colonel M]

Just today mIRC and Firefox are not responding, but Internet Explorer is fine. They boh worked yesterday, but for some reason they aren't today. Even after turning off my Firewall it still doesn't work (and I also enabled both mIRC and Firefox on my computer). Can anyone help me with my dilemna?

EDIT: I tried downloading Google Chrome to no avail either.

 

[SparkTEHfuze]

Just today mIRC and Firefox are not responding, but Internet Explorer is fine. They boh worked yesterday, but for some reason they aren't today. Even after turning off my Firewall it still doesn't work (and I also enabled both mIRC and Firefox on my computer). Can anyone help me with my dilemna?

EDIT: I tried downloading Google Chrome to no avail either.

This may sound REALLY stupid, but go check the advanced settings on Firefox.
I know for a fact that when I first got Firefox, it tried to use proxies to connect to the internet for what ever reason, and I had no idea what was wrong until I went and looked.
Hope that helps :P

 

[Colonel M]

Sorry, that didn't work.

P.S. I tried downloading Chrome on IE, btw. I also don't think this is Firefox's fault, but somewhere in my computer...

 

[Exarius]

Ok, so my hard disk was for some reason halved and only 127GB is usable of it (+XP installation). Thus, I have over 100 GB that just is, without being used for anything. Thus, I'd like to enlarge my HD so I can use it. How big is the risk I fuck up something when I do this (resulting in that I need to reinstall the whole thing), and what programs do you recommend for doing it? I know my dad used a program called Gparted when he did something similar, but I'd like to know if you have some other suggestions.

 

[Blue Kirby]

I quite regularly use Gparted for this sort of thing myself - I can attest to its ease of use. You just boot it up from the live disc and do whatever you need to do. If you're extending your partition by 100GB, you may be waiting a while, but I'm yet to lose any files while doing so (although I've always got a backup just in case, and I recommend that you do the same!)

EDIT: I knew 127 seemed all too familiar. Your copy of XP doesn't have an integrated Service Pack, does it? That's why you're only getting 127GB available to you. Make sure you update to a Service Pack (at least SP2, preferably SP3) before even looking at GParted.

 

[Exarius]

I've got SP3 for ages, but yes, when I got the computer about 18 months ago, it was clean install with no updates on it.

Also, I did some googling after my post, and tumbled upon EASEUS partition Master. Apparently it's like Gparted, except that I don't need a live CD for it, which would be preferable (at the moment I got only 4.7 gig non-rewritable CDs, which would be a bit wasted for having only Gparted on them, not mentioning I have never burned a CD before). Any comments on this before I go and try it?

EDIT: I went and used EASEUS, and it took literally 5 minutes from when I started to install till I was finished with resizing and everything. And no problems as of now that has popped up.

 

[Obsessed]

The 9,o,L,>,., and left arrow keys are not working on my laptop. Only those keys... everything else works fine. I notice a little green light that goes off when I press the other keys, but it remains lit when I try and press one of the non-working keys.

Any idea what might be causing this?

Edit: Ok so they started working again for about 10 minutes, and then the same green light problem occurred... ok as I was typing this sentence the keys stopped working and then started working again...

 

[Exarius]

Since it's a laptop: Have you checked there isn't dirt under the buttons? It might prevent the buttons from connecting properly and make the computer think you aren't pressing them.