MereKat

Cheers guys. It had 2 bits of Malware on it, both removed. HDD has 52gb used and 49gb free, so not run disk cleanup as of yet. I belive it has 2 slots, both with 512mb iirc, so may look into a couple of matched 1 or 2gb sticks. It was running a little better though, at least i think it was, maybe just what i has hoping for though!

Hi all, I have a Toshiba laptop with Vista installed - Speccy specs are: Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic 32-bit SP2 CPU AMD Sempron SI-40 2.0ghz 66 °C Griffin 65nm Technology RAM 1.00 GB DDR2 @ 333MHz (1-3-3-3) Motherboard TOSHIBA Portable PC (Socket M2/S1G1) 60 °C Graphics LP154WX4-TLC8 (1280x800@60Hz) ATI video (Toshiba) Hard Drives 112GB TOSHIBA MK1252GSX ATA Device (SATA) 42 °C Optical Drives MAT****A DVD-RAM UJ880AS ATA Device Audio Realtek High Definition Audio I know Vista is a hungry OS, and on this machine, with its low specs, it's pretty slow and quite unresponsive. Without having to spend out on it (I believe this is now 5 years old, was left to me when my grandad died) is there anything i can do to it to speed things up? My other laptop (also a hand-me-down!) runs XP Home, which to be honest i think i prefure. The other laptop is similar specs but runs a lot quicker! A lot of people have said 'Download so and so program to do this that and the other', but i'm not too sure on what they actually do that Windows can't do within the OS itself... The only 'clean-up' program i have is '360Amigo', which i also have on the other laptop. That helps a bit in 'Power your PC' mode (turns off all the unnecessary bits), but it's still not great...startup is usually around 105 seconds (My other laptop is normally between 50-70 seconds) I was going to try a factory reset on this one, but as the processor and RAM are pretty low, would it really be worth it?...

Got this working now, had an old XP disc laying about and borrowed the DVD-RW drive form the other PC, but have used the key for my other laptop to get it working. For some reason though, my laptop has XP Proffesional Inc SP2, which is printed on the disc, but the PC has loaded as XP Media Edition. During installation it asked for CD2 to be inserted, which i've never had, and as such has missed a lot of files, including all network drivers... Would i simply need a new disc to either reinstall or repair the 'failed' current install? If successful, the laptop will be made redundant as it is pretty old and had a very hard life!

I've seen a lot of people post on this in various places, but 90% of post's i read are slightly different... I am a member on a few forums, mainly to do with my car, but other interests aswell. The issue i am having is that whenever i go to any of them, any browser i am using (Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari) with load the top of the webpage...nothing else. I can click refresh, and after a few attempts it'll load everything straight up. I have left it on a page loading for 15-20mins, and nothing, then hit refresh and boom!! There it is! Other times it takes 10+ refreshes to load anything. The Net connection is good, and all browser seem to be fine with any other pages including YouTube iplayer etc, so pretty sure it's not a connection problem. I have run a couple of spyware, malware and antivirus scans, which come up with nothing but cookies. I also have an old Compaq Windows 98SE laptop which has no problems loading anything, although it is very slow to do anything! Is it something i can easily adjust in the settings? Or will it be a case of repair/re-install windows (Or other similar drastic scenario)... The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A30 running XP SP3.

Hi Ken, I have bought a 1gb stick of RAM to go in, but the PC just beeps if it's put in. Ive read that a BIOS update may solve this? The current BIOS is an American Megatrends (AMI), and they link me to a 3rd party scanner/updater which wont update it unless i buy their software, which, i don't want to do! Fair enough if i want to upgrade, i should pay for the pleasure, but if things don't work because the BIOS is out of date, i don't think i should have to pay to update it...is there anywhere i can update this for free? It shows the current version being from 2005! Video Card - I have tried letting windows search for the drivers...it's currently looking for them, has been for the past 10-15mins or so I have now got both HDD's recognised! For some reason the 2nd HDD is known as 'Betty', must be the last owners desired name...has a lot of stuff on it (various games and software, 65GB out of 80GB used), so may take a while to format!) When i do format it, would it need to be done in a certain way to use in the non-working PC? It's taken me about 10 minutes to type this with the search from the video driver, so given up on that...if 20 minutes isn't long enough i'll deal with pressing Cancel on startup for a while! The new RAM i have bought has the following on the sticker: 1GB DDR 333 CL2 5 ECC Reg PCR2700R-25331-CO The current 256 has this on Speccy: SPD Number Of SPD Modules 1 Slot #1 Type DDR Size 256 MBytes Manufacturer Micron Technology Max Bandwidth PC3200 (200 MHz) Part Number 8VDDT3264AG-40BGB Serial Number 20230821 Week/year 20 / 05 SPD Ext. EPP JEDEC #3 Frequency 200.0 MHz CAS# Latency 3.0 RAS# To CAS# 3 RAS# Precharge 3 tRAS 8 Voltage 2.500 V JEDEC #2 Frequency 166.7 MHz CAS# Latency 2.5 RAS# To CAS# 3 RAS# Precharge 3 tRAS 7 Voltage 2.500 V JEDEC #1 Frequency 133.3 MHz CAS# Latency 2.0 RAS# To CAS# 2 RAS# Precharge 2 tRAS 6 Voltage 2.500 V Speccy has this for the The Motherboard/BIOS: Motherboard Manufacturer NEC COMPUTERS INTERNATIONAL Model P5S800-VM (Socket 775) Version PB13310501 Chipset Vendor SiS Chipset Model 661FX Chipset Revision 11 Southbridge Vendor SiS Southbridge Model 964 Southbridge Revision 36 System Temperature 39 °C BIOS Brand American Megatrends Inc. Version 0159 Date 04/25/2005 Voltage CPU CORE 1.368 V VIN0 1.784 V AVCC 3.408 V +3.3V 3.392 V MEMORY CONTROLLER 1.208 V VIN2 1.624 V VIN3 0.040 V VIN4 0.040 V PCI Data Slot UNKNOWN Slot Type UNKNOWN Slot Usage Available Bus Width 32 bit Slot Designation AGP Slot Number 0 Slot PCI Slot Type PCI Slot Usage Available Bus Width 32 bit Slot Designation PCI1 Slot Number 1 Slot PCI Slot Type PCI Slot Usage In Use Bus Width 32 bit Slot Designation PCI2 Slot Number 2 Slot PCI Slot Type PCI Slot Usage Available Bus Width 32 bit Slot Designation PCI3 Slot Number 3 Slot UNKNOWN is the AGP slot the video card is in, and the voltages are constantly changing (not by much though). So, question now is: Will the new RAM work in this old girl, of is it the wrong type? And Can i update my BIOS with no moneys needing to be transferred?...

This was given to me as an 'almost complete' build, from various bits from different PCs. All i can say about that is that it has a 1.8Ghz P4 procesor, 512mb RAM, currently no HDD and a GeForce 6200 DDR2 128mb AGP Video card. It also has a 'Zalman' fan on the processor? Previous guy said it was one of the 'many good bits' the PC h as? I have a HDD, that was also given to me, but it doesn't load anything past the BIOS screen, just restarts continually, so i'm guessing it was used as a second HDD by the last user and as such no OS on it. I have tried it in both PC's with the same outcome, so guess it's an issue with either the HDD or software? I have 2 IDE cable's in my current working PC, one is marked MOTHER BOARD, the other is marked Master and Slave CD-Rom and Motherboard. Are both essentially the same thing? I connected both HDD's using the CD-Rom IDE cable, with the current working HDD on master and other HDD on slave (Intention of Reformatting it for fresh use), but in the BIOS it didn't recognise either HDD's? I'd like to use this as a kind of 'media center', as it's smaller and looks nicer, so ideal for putting near a TV etc, but not sure if it would be capable? Mainly for watching stuff on Netflix, DVD's and Music. Netflix works fine on our Wii, and i don't think the Wii is as 'Powerful' as the PC could be? I'm not sure whether to run it on XP, or try it with a Linux base? I have a RaspberryPi which people have said can be used as a media centre with the right bits plugged in, so guessing Linux would work? More RAM can be put in if it'll help with speeding things up, but anything more complicated than taking something off, or putting something in, i'm i little clueless about! Solving software issues is a little sketchy, but i can follow instruction quite well :o

Everest! That's what i was thinking of! I'll run that and Speccy this evening and see what come up. The 'fake' ram is this: http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6054256_use-usb-memory-ram-xp.html - Virtual Memory. Seems to work a little quicker since having it in place?... I've ordered a 1gb stick to replace the 256mb to see if that speeds things up by much, if it does, i'll get another 1gb of the same make/type to join it :) I've heard/read the USB method doesn't give much help due to the differing write speeds, but a new stick should see a much better improvement... I'll edit the first post, start a new one :) Didn't know if it would be easier on the forum to have 1 thread or 2!

I currently have 2 PC's, one works, one doesn't... Both are made up of various bits from different computers, and *seem* to be of an OK spec. The working one (I'm using at this very moment in time!): All i can tell you is it has a 2.8Ghz CeleronD Processor and 256mb Ram, with a 2GB Memory stick acting as 'fake ram' (?), don't know what you call it really. It has a video card with a fan on it (GeForce 6200A D128M), an 80GB HDD and a DVD-RW that doesn't show up! With this one, it was in my mums garage for a number of years, and suffered slight damage while in said garage, main bit being the VGA output socket on the motherboard (?) being broken off, and the current video card being given to me by a friend. Although it seems to work fine, it keeps coming up as an unknown device and Windows wants to find the drivers for it, drivers are installed from somewhere (can't remember where from, but it worked), so want to stop it coming up? Also, i imagine it's RAM related, but it is extremely slow to start up, i've checked the 'msconfig', and there appears to be minimal items in the startup tab, but that's all i know! I know for any issues a more detailed spec of the PC would be needed and i remember a website/programe that would scan the PC/Laptop/whatever and give a full report on whats what? Can't remember what it was called...i keep thinking Emerald? Can't find anything online for it though.... The second one... This was given to me as an 'almost complete' build, again from various bits. All i can say about that is that it has a 1.8Ghz P4 procesor, 512mb RAM, currently no HDD and a similar video card (GeForce 6200 DDR2 128mb AGP). It also has a 'Zalman' fan on the processor? Previous guy said it was one of the 'good bits'? I have a HDD, that was also given to me, but it doesn't load anything past the BIOS screen, just restarts continually, so i'm guessing it was used as a second HDD by the last user and as such no OS on it. I have tried it in both PC's with the same outcome, so guess it's an issue with either the HDD or software? I have 2 IDE cable's in the current (1st) PC, one is marked MOTHER BOARD, the other is marked Master and Slave CD-Rom and Motherboard. Are both essentially the same thing? I connected both HDD's using the CD-Rom IDE cable, with the working HDD on master and other HDD on slave, but in the BIOS it didn't recognise either HDD's? The first one i'd like to use as the main home desktop for web, emails and photo editing, and probably a lot of YouTube viewing of silly cats etc (I have an 8yr old son...that's my excuse anyway!) The second one i'd like to use as a kind of 'media center', as it's smaller and looks nicer, so ideal for putting near a TV etc, but not sure if it would be capable? Mainly for watching stuff on Netflix, DVD's and Music. Netflix works fine on our Wii, and i don't think the Wii is as 'Powerful' as the PC could be? More RAM can be put it both if it'll help with speeding things up, but anything more complicated than taking something off, or putting something in, i'm i little clueless about! Solving software issues is a little sketchy, but can follow instruction quite well :o anyway, sorry for the long post! I'm sure if i read it back to myself in an hour i'll wonder what on earth i've put this all up for! Main question at the moment is, what would the website/program be to give a diagnostic on whats what with the PC?.....

Hey everyone, in a 'Surprise Surprise' inspired intro...'My names Luke and i'm from Norwich!!!!' (Everyone Clap and Cheer here...) Anyway... Got a few 'Problems', so will start searching, and posting if necessary! Well, i'll probably just post, i usually find searching takes weeks as i never use the right wording! Anyhow, i'll go now.....