Plastic Nev

Hi V2p, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. After reading through where you have got to a couple of times now while I thought this one through, there is one little nagging thing, and that is the hard drive may have either died or is seriously on the way there. Bearing that in mind, and considering you must have access to another computer to have come here, I suggest that we look first at rescuing all the data you want off it and either temporarily putting it on the working computer, or to some other storage medium via that working one. to do that you will need either a USB adapter or USB caddy, and to remove the hard drive from the duff machine and fit to either the adapter or caddy. You will need to know whether the drive is SATA or IDE, and obtain an adapter or caddy suitable for it. Plug it into the working machine and if the drive has sufficient life left in it, it should show up as an external storage medium, similar to a USB pen or thumb drive. Transfer all the data you need, once you are sure you have all you need, you at least can then be sure it is OK to experiment at refitting of the drive and reinstall of the operating system. However, be aware that if I am right and the drive is nearly dead, you may not be able to retrieve any data. However if all seems OK with the drive at this point, at least you have everything safe regarding your data, and the drive can then be refitted to the machine. I would then try to go for a complete reinstall of XP. If this again fails, which it may because of incomplete repair from last time, it may pay to reconnect to the working machine, and use the working machine to reformat the drive completely. NTFS being the file system if asked. Nev.

In short, I will agree with Dalo, however, there may well be more issues than just the capacitors. If one out of those already bulging has gone completely, and although you get correct readings from the PSU while not connected, there may be nothing when it is, (I have seen that myself) so be aware that the PSU may just have been damaged by a bad capacitor. The other worry is that the fault may have gone further and damaged other components on the mother board. If you don't mind trying the replacement of those capacitors, and forget the cost if it proves to not cure things, then it may be worth that try. Incidentally, the voltage specified will most likely be 6.3 volts and not 63v. A 3300uf capacitor at 63 volts would be huge, around two inch (50mm) long and a minimum of 3/4 inch (20mm) diameter, if not even bigger at a guess. As A Ps, I just checked and I wasn't far wrong at 44mm long, 22mm dia. Nev.

Good to hear all worked out OK Joe and thanks for the update. Nev.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. It looks like a new partition has been created for the new Windows 7 install. If that is the case, you may be able to delete the old partition that contains XP but not sure, so please wait for other replies as the new partition will need to be renamed as "C" at some point, and I am not too sure about doing that correctly. A bit late in the day, but when the W 7 was installed the drive should have been reformatted first. However if you wanted to save all other data without backing up to another storage medium, then perhaps that is why it wasn't reformatted. That though has lead to the position you are in. Nev.

Remember though that clicking on and admitting a download will bypass all security in a lot of cases. However, certain browser download managers can screen with your anti-virus the download before it goes to your downloaded files storage, providing you use one. Firefox can be set up to do this as also some others. Nev.

Some good effects there guys, why not a tutorial on Photoshop if any one has the time to do one, I feel sure it would be welcome for those who have it or intend getting it. Nev.

Hi John, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help, and hope we can help you with any problems. Nev.

I think in the case of young Jackie, auto tuning was not being used, if it had, the slight off pitch near the end would have been hidden, listen carefully to the last words as she goes up the scale. Then again I am a musician and spotted the slightly out of tune note, others may not hear it. this of course does not detract from such a superb performance, even top fully trained singers will hit a bad one now and then.

Snap Frank, he he. :D

Hi, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help. Just so you know you haven't been ignored, and if I understand this correctly. You have at least one external hard drive containing data, some of which matches whatever is on the internal drive, you wish to compare the two drives and then see if there are files on one drive that are not on the other. Am I correct? As far as I am aware, this would be quite a difficult thing to do in one go and personally do not know of any software capable of doing it. However, do have a look on this Google page to see if there is anything of use to you there. Google Nev.

Hi Tismehi, good to see you again. Although not the same, I bought a new PC recently with W7 home on it, but then bought the upgrade to W7 Pro. It went perfectly OK and disturbed nothing. However, in your case it is a bit more of an upgrade, so I would first be sure you have everything backed up, then also make sure you have a system restore point made as well, just to be safe. Microsoft do say something similar anyway, but they also state the upgrade should not change or remove existing files and documents. Taken from this page- Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows Upgrading is the most convenient way to get Windows 7 on your computer, because it keeps your files, settings, and programs from Windows Vista in place. Please note this though-- If your current edition of Windows Vista can't be upgraded to the edition of Windows 7 that you want to use, you can still install Windows 7 by using the Custom installation option instead. However, the Custom option doesn't preserve your files, programs, or settings. For a step-by-step tutorial on how to perform a custom installation--- It then gives a link for more info, but if you are doing a workable upgrade, there should be no problem. Nev.

An interesting page from Microsoft about this, here- Alureon Evolves to 64 Bit - Microsoft Malware Protection Center - Site Home - TechNet Blogs You can see from that article that you can at least find out if you have been caught out with it, and therefore do something about it. It would seem they do at least have a handle on it, and the Microsoft Security Essentials can remove it. Nev.

Hi, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help by the way, I am just wondering if a new user account has been created by accident somehow. Open control panel, then click on user accounts, then see if there is more than the one you know about, if there is and you opened that one, instead of your normal account, that would explain why you find all folders empty, as they would be for a new user. Nev.

Hi Bob, I found this one some time since and is great for any type of conversion, called "Any Video Converter" and is a free download from here- Free Video Converter - Any Video Converter Free Version - convert video to any formats, avi to MPEG, avi to MP4, flv to MPG And yes I have used it to convert MOV to other formats with no problem, just be aware it is not very fast and takes some time in converting, especially if the file is of some length or size. However, a recent look and XVID doesn't seem to be one of the available outputs, however there are many other usable formats available within it. Nev.

Hi, Dalo may well be right about the GPU, however I have just had a quick look at a review of that machine and see that the CPU is only a dual core. In most cases that would be fine, however you want to work with HD video, and that is very high in data levels. I am not surprised you saw the CPU max out during import of that video, and in subsequent editing. Editing will bring in the GPU, yes, but not so for importing in the first place, that is just raw data handling, so I imagine an upgrade of the CPU may also be on the cards here. I would also suggest removing the two 266MHZ RAM sticks and replace them with two 400MHZ, although 4GB total is more than enough, the higher speed will help. Dalo Knows perhaps a lot more than I ever will regarding GPU cards, but in situations like this there are other factors come into it when trying to handle HD video files. Nev.

Hi, just a thought, but to get around this and to get the computer to boot on the new drive first. I suggest obtaining a converter, or caddy, to then be able to connect the old drive as an external USB device. Doing it that way means you can start the computer and let it boot up normally on the new drive only, then once booted, plug the old drive via the converter to a USB port. Windows should then see it as external storage hardware. My next advice, considering you had a malware problem on the old drive, would be to install some extra security software before doing any of the above, and the suggested being Malwarebytes, and Superantispyware. With those pre installed, once you connect the old drive as a USB device, and before trying to recover any data, providing the drive shows up in "My computer" right click on the drive, and you should then see the options to scan the drive using the security softwares. Do so and let them remove anything they find. If they report a problem and cannot remove something. Do not try to get at your data yet, take the whole problem to our security and malware removal section for one of our experts to look at. Nev.

Hi Hector, did you completely uninstall the old not genuine copy of office first? The authentication software may still be seeing that or even remnants of it. If that is the case, I can only suggest downloading and using a third party uninstaller such as Revo, that will remove all traces, so you can then re install the new legal copy, which should then validate correctly. Revo uninstaller can be downloaded from here- Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download - Uninstall software, remove programs, solve uninstall problems You can download the full pro version for a 30 day free trial, or go for the less functional free version. I would use the thirty day trial to get you out of the present situation, then make your own decision as to whether you then buy the pro version or downgrade to the free. Nev.

I am another who bought new and it came with W7 of course. In my case though I bought new in order to get W7 so I can work my way round it for myself. Like Randy, now I have things the way I want them I love it, so much quicker than the old desktop with XP. I also got the two months free trial of Microsoft Office, but only need a word processor program. I used to have, in fact still do have the Microsoft "Works 8" on the XP desktop, which I bought for it, but on looking round, yes there is "Works 9" but only available in the USA and not here in the UK. I am not paying the full fee for Office and all the clutter that brings, so I went for the free "Open Office" for this W7 machine. There are some problems with Open Office, but got round by converting the old Works Word documents just by re naming them to .Doc files. However, there are a lot of things you can do in Open Office that are actually better than the Microsoft Office. I much prefer the way it opens a power point show, as you can see each slide individually, or run it as the show, whichever you want. That is something you can't do with the Microsoft power point viewer. Nev.

I will agree with Seedy21, about it likely to be a RAM problem, do you know how many sticks you have in? If more than one, remove one, the machine may run a bit slower with what is left if it does start at all. If no change, replace the one you removed and remove the, or an, other. Hope that at least shows which is faulty. If there is only one stick of RAM to start with, you will have to try and borrow one of the same type,or buy one. Nev.

JB, most modern cars have at the very least an engine management unit on board, In the higher ranges of car, these become nearly a full computer. Mechanics use software on a laptop or other computer to get into and view the system information, in order to diagnose engine or other faults. As Dalo said, the software is different for each car manufacturer, mainly because the on board computers are differently configured by the manufacturer. Nev.

Not that I know of. You see in normal circumstances the clock is updated at regular intervals directly off the net, but if no connection, this cannot happen of course.

Hi Jayden you are looking into getting into some fairly specialised things here. That well known Christmas lights video shows what can be done of course, but it certainly wouldn't be cheap to achieve all that. You do need some external gear in order to achieve even something simple, and my guess would be to talk to a DJ and how he controls the lighting set up, most are using controllers hooked up to a laptop these days, but simple electronic stuff can be put together, and even a simple program created to work it. Maplin being an electronics specialist dealers, sell both the individual components, some various kits, and the main thing, books describing how. I wish you the best of luck and you are obviously a budding electronics experimenter, so sooner or later, once armed with all the knowledge, you could become a professional at it. Any way, a good idea would perhaps to go looking for a forum more electronics oriented rather than just computing as we are here, A look in Google gives a long list here-. Google And for a first try, this site looks promising- Electronic Circuits Projects Diagrams Free Nev.

A chap got the sultan of Amman, the Sultan of Arabia, and a few other sultans from other far east states, connected them together with some wires then connected a voltage across and charged the lot. Police have arrested him for a Sultan battery.

As Dalo said, extremely difficult to obtain, normally direct from the car manufacturer and only available to professional car repairers, at least fully legally that is. No doubt illegal versions, plus botched plugs may be somewhere on the net, and possibly at a price, but that is not a way we can recommend, as it will most probably be a hacked and therefore illegal version, plus the risk of it all coming with a bad dose of malware is high.:D

Happy birthday seedy, hope you have a good one. Nev.