Plastic Nev

A tremendous amount of software downloaded via torrent sites is illegal pirated stuff. In these circumstances, considering there is no way for us, or even you, to verify that any software you acquired by this method is legal, or come to that illegal and of a pirated nature, we have to refuse help with it. We can be open to all sorts of problems if seen to be doing so. Sorry and hope you understand. However, too much is pointing to a failing hard drive at this moment, as the system is refusing to access the operating system. Is there a possibility that you can remove the drive, and by using an adapter connect it via USB to a different computer? If you can do that, let us know as we can at least help you find out if the hard drive has failed, if indeed a virus is present on the drive, or at the very least hopefully recover any valuable files. Nev.

If you mean the folder details at the bottom, click "Organise" then go down to "Layout", remove the tick for "Details Pane". Nev.

Hi Jay, yes we probably could do with some more information, Mainly the make and model, desktop or laptop, will be a big help. I am guessing here but considering it has HDMI output and sound is appearing at the monitor speakers I think that rules out a driver problem. So it will no doubt be a matter of redirecting the sound away from the HDMI output and instead it needs to be going to the green socket. That setting if there is one should be in control panel. Go to start then click on Control panel, once opened, it may be set to category, click that and a drop down should give you the choice of large or small icons. Click large icons for now, then there should be two options, one should be just Sound, and hopefully the other should be Realtek HD Audio manager. The setting to change may be within the Realtek controls, though they may also be in the other option of Sound. This is where ideally we could do with knowing who made the computer and the model. It just may not be the Realtek system installed. Nev.

Hi Jay, Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. I will go have a look now at your problem. Nev.

I am running Windows 7 Pro, with no dots on anything. Just wonder if it is an oddity of the Premium version. Otherwise, like everyone else, not a clue and can't find anything anywhere either.

Hi, first I agree with Dalo here, the sounds you describe do appear to be external interference rather than something inside the computer. However it still could be internal, I once had some tremendous interference due to the cable to the hard drive not being seated correctly. Granted that was on an older machine using the broad grey ribbon cable or IDE type of system. However at the moment we don't know much about what computer you have in order to give better advice, if you can tell us the make, model, and whether this is a desktop or a laptop it will be a big help. From that knowledge we can hopefully find which socket does what, and also point you in the right direction to download the correct drivers for the sound system. Nev.

A bit late, but happy birthday my friend and hope it was a good one. I can see a few decent whisky's have gone by now, but have another from me. Nev.

If F10 is no longer getting you into the recovery partition, trying the older XP disk may have either wiped the recovery partition or at least seriously damaged it. Do not try that old disk, even if it did load, it be flagged as ilegal the minute it went looking for activation and for updates from Microsoft and may even shut down. There are only two options left. The first and possibly cheapest is the disk from Acer. To buy a new and fully legal copy of windows which is the second option, is a lot more than what Acer want. Nev.

Hi I have had a look and answered the other post, if you did as you said tried the new drive in a caddy on other computers and it wasn't recognised it does look to be suspect. As for SATA against SATA2 I am not sure about compatibility, Dalo will know more, but even so it should still have been seen on other computers while in a separate caddy and I hope plugged into a USB port. As for the issue on this thread and the suspect cable, hopefully that is all it is, but time will tell. Nev.

I would return it, once you have installed it to a caddy and then plugged it into a USB port, regardless of system type, it should have been recognised. It does look like you got a rare duffer. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Free PC help. I hope between us we can help you out of trouble. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. This one seems to be quite common but has a multitude of reasons for why it happens, first, can you tell us what security programs, such as anti-virus and firewall you are running as sometimes certain programs can conflict and cause this. Next is a possible memory or RAM fault. It may be worth running a test so have a look here and see what results you get. Be aware these tests can take some time to complete. Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool Let us know what the RAM test finds, and also what security programs you have please. Nev.

Hi bennyzen, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. First off click start and select "Control Panel," then sound. In the window that opens if not already on it, click the tab for Playback. There should be at least the loudspeaker icon with a green tick next to it. If not click on it, then Properties, check that Select this device is there in the drop down menu. Please let us know if you find something different or none of that does the trick. Nev.

Hi Yockie, if you want to be able to break that sound track into sections for easier management, there is a free sound editing program available called Audacity, that will do all you need. Audacity is available for download from here= Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder Once installed, you will need to then download and install the "Lame" codec to work with MP3, but no worries as Audacity explains where to get it, and how to install. Hope that is of help for you. Nev.

Hi, that old XP disk from the older machine, having been installed and therefore fully activated on that machine, will firstly not be legal if you got it to work on the other machine, also the Vista upgrade will likely not work either as it may have already been matched to the XP install it was meant to upgrade. We now know that version is lost. I suggest the safest and legal way out is to buy a new copy of Vista, or better if the system will run it, Windows 7, and start from the beginning again with that. Nev.

Hi Lee, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, just so you know you haven't been ignored, but the guys who know more about this may not be on line till Monday, so if you can please hang on till next week, someone should be around to help you then. Ideally we need to know if this is a laptop or desktop machine, the make and model number will help also. Unfortunately I am no graphics guy, however if this is a laptop, upgrading graphics is virtually not possible. On the other hand if it is a desktop tower box things can move on, however if intending to upgrade the graphics, quite often the power supply will need to be replaced with something bigger, so if you know the present size of the PSU in watts, that will be of help. Nev.

It could help if we know why did you replace the power jack, was it because it worked OK but intermittently when power plugged in? Or was it because it just didn't work at all and you assumed it was the Jack? If the first, then something may be out of place, or there may even have been some static damage done while working on it. If you were not either well earthed or at least connected to the ground of the laptop static electrical discharge can destroy large numbers of components. If the second reason, the jack may not have been faulty and the problem may be elsewhere. If you can explain all the symptoms prior to starting on replacing the jack, as well as as much as possible about what is happening now it will be a lot of help to us to go further.

Just to add, most of us may well be at work during the day or even the full week, so we cannot promise immediate response or even the day after. In my case I can only help at weekends. However, if Dalo suggestions are not useful, perhaps only one port on the machine. There are two ways to go from here, the first is, if possible to try the monitor on a friends computer, that will of course prove the monitor one way or the other, and of course if friend is willing, try his known to be working monitor on your machine. Nev.

In actual fact, you can get adapters that will go from IDE to SATA or the other way round so you could use that older drive if you wanted, providing it works anyway of course. Nev.

You should be able to get a HDMI to HDMI cable considering both computer and TV have the ports, that will give you the best possible picture. Be aware though that we have found in some instances that sound does not work, in those cases, a scart to RCA type adapter was needed. Then an audio cable from the speaker or line out port on the computer, to RCA plugs at the other end to go into the scart adapter. Hopefully though, that may not be needed with there being HDMI ports at both ends. Nev.

Hi, I assume this is a built in card reader slot and not a separate USB plug in reader, it is the "Restart snap in" that is confusing as I have not heard of that one before. However, in device manager does it show any yellow or red question or exclamation marks by any of the devices. Also have a look at the "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" for the same thing. Let us know what you find, or if there is any other things you can see. Nev.

Hi Gilli, there can be a few different reasons for this, first of all have you been in touch with BT and asked them to check the line? Secondly, it could just be a faulty cable and for the price worth trying, but after that it could only be the modem itself. Nev.

Hi Randy is correct, I assume the sound system is the original on board and probably the usual Realtek one. Control of sound is a hardware thing rather than software so the only way forward would be a PCI or PCIE additional sound card, plus of course a decent speaker system. If you already have a separate Hi Fi sound system, you can connect to that providing it has a line input stereo socket on it. All you would need would be a lead with the appropriate plugs/sockets on it to obtain much better sound quality at minimum expense. Nev.

Hi, sorry to say but considering it isn't listed in device management, and it wasn't picked up when removed and re-installed, it looks like it may have died altogether. Before buying a new one to replace it, if it is possible to try installing it in another computer that will confirm or otherwise. If it is OK the other computer will hopefully see it and install it. If not then it is duff. Nev.

Hello and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Glad you find us a good place to be and hope we can help you and that you may be able to help us. Nev.