hardware_dave

Spent ages trying to fix a wide screen laptop that would not display video on dvd playback. Tried a couple of different dvd playback packages, reinstalled video driver, removed divx: no joy. In frustration I uninstalled google desktop, and it started working ! No idea why it worked, but if you have similar problems try removing google desktop. Dave

Its a laptop, no upgrade possible. Dave

Networkcards are all much the same these days, if your old one works ok stick with it. If the players are on the local network, the choice of switch and the power of your server will be much more important. If the players are connecting via adsl, your internet connection will be the bottleneck. Hope that helps. Dave

Blue Screen Of Death I always liked that one. Three finger salute (ctrl + alt + delete) is another fave. Dave

You would have always had a public IP, they have just changed where it gets nat'ed to a private range. http://www.netdummy.net/privateip.html Basicly your network was setup wrong. Now its correctly set upyou could run a- ftp server game server webserver Use vnc to connect to your desktop from anywhere. The possabilites are endless..... Dave

Run the extended test for a few passes, with all the memory fitted. Its found a few bad memory sticks for me. Dave

This may helpfrom the tips forum If you want to know ware all the space went on your 500gig drive try spacemonger - SpaceMonger is a tool for keeping track of the free space on your computer. Each file or folder on a given drive is displayed in a box in the main window whose size is a relative comparison to all the other files in your system. So, for example, if the "Windows" box takes up 90% of the screen, the "C:\Windows" folder and all its sub-folders and files are taking up 90% of your "C:" drive. http://www.download.com/SpaceMonger/3000-2248_4-10549663.html Dave

I see what you mean, I usualy just do search on the part number and buy from a 3rd party supplier. If its more expensive than an original part that gets passed onto the customer. Compared to paying me to spend 1hr on the phone it will still be cheeper. To get a dell account just buy a server or 2, they will call you. <grin> Dave PS. Dell seem to be in the habit of sending either the wrong or no vga cable.

Almost correct, its basic input - output system. Most poeple confuse the bios with the NVRAM. The NVRAM stores system settings such as the type of hard disk or the boot order. Its very low power and will keep the information for years using a button cell. The BIOS is a bit of software on a chip, it configures the memory, sets up graphics card, tests some basic parts of the system (thats the post, as in pass the post) then loads the OS off the hard disk. It also contains the program to change the NVRAM or BIOS settings. POST = power on self test In the bad old days, you had to boot from a floppy disk to change the NVRAM settings !! Dave PS yes I am an old git and remember punch cards + 8in floppy disks....... PPS the original IBM PC had quick basic in the bios <grin>

My older laptop has an exact match with what he sees when the num lock is on. Could be a driver issue or stuck key, but I would check the num lock first. Dave

You could get a trade account, we have one with dell but not the others. We mainly buy new servers, but I am sure having an account manager would speed things up. I agree with Seth on the under warranty stuff, if its out of warranty why not use off the shelf parts ? If its a custom part, its probably not worth the cost of a replacment. Seth : you only go the suppliers every six months ? that must be one hell of an order <grin>. Dave

Sounds like you have the num lock on. Dave

I ment if you take your router out and plug the dish directly into your pc, you will get a public ip . If you put a switch in to add more pc's it would not work as you only get one public ip with no nat. You will still want to use your router, it will give you nat so you can have more than one computer connected, dhcp so they all get private ip's and a firewall to protect them. With your computer pluged directly into the dish (after they have reconfigured it) you would have no firewall (apart from the windows one) on a public IP and thats risky. If you have any open services you will get hacked. Network Address Translation is just a way of having more than one pc connected to a pubilc ip. This is all assuming I am correct about the way your isp works. <grin> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation Dave

Sounds like you may have had double nat (2 routers in effect), that can cause all sorts of problems. The 'router' between your router and the dish may be locked down and controlled by the ISP, it sounds like they are going to turn off its nat. When they have, if you plugged a pc directy into their router you would get a public IP. If you try this, make sure you have a good firewall installed. I close up of the box could confirm all this (if it has a make/model). Dave

Dont worry, clearing the bios wont hurt your hard drive. Do you have a standard ps2 keyboard, wireless is useless for fault finding and not all motherboards support usb in the bios. Dave