KenB

Hi Laura and welcome to fpch. We are neighbours too - I live on Wirral. You should be able to expand your knowlege here - there are a lot of friendly people with a diverse range of experience.

Hi, Your motherboard, if I am correct, has one PCIe x 16 slot. With this you should have a wide variety of options to "upgrade". Take a look here: Best Graphics Cards For The Money: November 2010 : November Updates

Too late with my edit !! I am assuming an external drive? If not - suggest you set the drive up as a slave or in a caddy.

Hi and welcome to fpch Try this: Connect the drive and check in Computer which drive letter is allocated. ( could be E:\ or other) Start > type in .....cmd.... and when cmd.exe appears top left of the panel right click on it and select "Run as Administrator" At the command prompt type the following: format X: /FS:FAT32 ......(where X = the drive letter of the drive listed in Computer) Note - there is a space after X: If this does not allow you to format it - ( due to the size of your drive ) you will need to get hold of a piece of software such as "SwissKnife"

You could try this: How to Recover an Overwritten Microsoft Word File | eHow.com I have Open Office so cannot verify it.

This may help: Google Image Result for http://www.laptoprepair101.com/wp-images/dc-jack-repair/16-soldering-power-jack.jpg

Just to confirm: You are trying to connect wirelessly? Start > Run ...type in ...devmgmt.msc ....ENTER Click the + next to Network Adapters Are there any yellow exclamation marks? What is listed?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_U8-q5CKVRYY/SnI9R-6TpZI/AAAAAAAAAF4/mLR-8BxNLrU/s400/happy-birthday-funny-cake-smoke-clouds.jpg

Hi, Is it text documents that cause this box to pop up? You can create watermarks in Word ( and other documents ). See here: How to create watermarks in Word 2002 and in Word 2003 It could be that the watermark has been saved as a template and appears on each document.

How many Watts is your PSU?

Hi and welcome to fpch Details of your motherboard are listed here: Dell Inspiron 545/8707 specifications | Expert Reviews It has a PCIe (x16) slot. The video card you are interested in is PCIe. I found a couple of reviews that suggest a PSU minimum of 400Watt. Personally I would suggest that you have PSU with a bit more output ( 500 Watt plus )

Hi, If this is your board you have 3 PCI slots and 1 AGP. http://www.getpcmemory.com/pics/asus-p5pe-vm-motherboard.jpg Your present video card {ATI Radeon HD 4350} appears to be a PCIe ?? Does your motherboard have PCIe slots? The Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 that you are interested in is a PCIe card. If the m/board shown in the link is yours then the connections are different and it will not fit in a PCI slot. If your m/board supports PCIe then the new card will be compatible. You may need to look at your PSU. Depending on what this is ( 450 Watt / 650Watt ?? ) you may need an upgrade. I found 1 review that suggesteed 600Watt minimum.

Hi Michael and welcome to fpch. I am not a Win7 user so my input will be limited - until somebody else can take over. (hope this is the same as Vista) Start > Run Type in .....devmgmt.msc....ENTER Click the + next to DVD CD ROM Are there any yellow exclamation marks? What is listed?

Good to hear your machine is performing normally - put this down to a group effort :)

Hi, I think the non-recognition of your 2nd drive is a different issue. MBAM found 4 infected files on D:\ I will ask Starbuck to take a look to see if it is worthwhile investigating this further.

Just to add to BeeCeeBee's comment: 2GB RAM should be more than enough for XP. I agree that you should look for the cause. Run MBAM from here: Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware: Malwarebytes Download the free version. Install > Update and run it. Let us know the results. How much free hard disk space do you have? What size hard disk? Start > My Computer ....right click C:\ > Properties

I still suspect a problem with the re-attachment of the pins. If the card was working properly prior to you accident with it then the only logical conclusion is that there is a connection problem. Take a close look at the tracks. ( Use a magnifying glass if you have one ) By ripping the pins out you could well have a hairline crack in one of the tracks. I cannot make the copper tracks out from your photo but it should be obvious which track is connected to each pin. The only conclusive way to test this is to borrow a meter and check the voltage on the two leads using the pin method described earlier. If you are not getting a voltage then the problem lies with the joint / track If you are then your soldering has been successful and the problem lies elsewhere on the board. If you are not getting a voltage on the yellow wire ( say ) then disconnect the plastic connection and test the pin. If no voltage on the pin then trace the track back a little and put the sharp pin through the coating to make contact with the track. If you get a voltage at this point work back towards the soldered connecting pin. Using this method you can locate the break in the track ( if there is one ). I cannot see any other way around this.

The yellow wire must connect to something. When you ripped the connector off the board where there 3 pins? If you are correct with the red / black wires then the yellow will, as you suggest, control the fan. This will probably be an analogue voltage ( changing ) From your photos it looks as if the centre connection has been totally ripped out. When you made the repair did you re-solder 3 connections? This looks like a double-sided board. Have you checked both sides for a possible track to solder the yellow wire to? When you soldered the connection back - are you sure that you didn't bridge the tracks? Any chance of a photo of the repair?

Hi, The 4870 cards that I found had 4 wires - blue / yellow / red / black ( in that order ) Are you sure that you don't have a dry joint on the soldering? With a voltmeter .....find a Ov connection. Use a straight pin and push it through the insulation of the yellow / red wires. Use this to check if you have 12v / 5v through the connecting wires.

Hi, Connect the monitor and make sure that you have power to it. Fn + F5 should allow you to toggle between your laptop and the monitor. (you should even be able to view both at the same time if you press the combination again)

If you are going to upgrade to Vista then you are going to need more RAM. Take a look here for minimum specs: Windows Vista system requirements - Microsoft Windows

Hi, Do you have an internet connection? There is a switch to switch on/off the wireless. Have you made sure this is on? If it is: Start > Connect To You should see available networks.

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Is this a desktop or laptop? Have you added any new hardware / software recently? Can you boot up in Safe Mode? Constantly tap f8 ( about once per second ) after switching on. Select Safe Mode from the list of options. Could be overheating.

Nice one Dalo :)

Try right click on the monitor icon (bottom right of screen) and select "Repair". Right click the monitor icon again. Click on "Connect to a Network" You should get a list of all networks that are "available" - click on yours. If you have it secured you will be asked for the key. If this fails can you post the details and try to explain what is happening.