PseFrank

Looks like JB pointed you in the right direction...Good luck with the new board..

First of all you need to backup any and all personal files you have on the PC to an external media...disk, flash stick, external drive, etc. You will lose all of these files! Next you need to enter the bios and set the CD/DVD drive to boot first in the boot order. To enter the bios start the computer and after you hear a single beep press and tap the F2 key... or if that fails try the Delete key. (Not certain about which key on your machine). Then save and exit (Often F10 key) Note: On some computers you will see an option to Press any key to boot from CD as the machine is booting up. (Normally a black screen with white text) Once you have established how to boot from the CD, place the operating disk in the drive and then shut your computer down. Restart the PC and you should see a blue window with Windows Setup at the top left hand side. Be patient and let the PC do its thing. And when you see a window that has the ( C: ) drive highlighted (Usually C)...You should also see 3 options.... Options: To set up windows on the selected item, press Enter. To create a partition...... To delete the selected partition...... It's the first option you need (To set up windows on the selected item....) Press Enter and follow any prompts given. It will probably take half an hour or so to install the Operating System...so be patient.

Hi Brunoalan... Do you have the Operating System disk for the installed OS? And if you have had the PC from new, does it have a sticker somewhere on the tower that has the product key printed on it? If everything is as original, and you do have the OS disk, then you can do a clean install which will delete everything from the hard drive. Or...if a new operating system has been installed since the computer was new, you would need the disk for that system...plus the product key. Failing all of that...can you give us the exact make and model of your computer.

Ok...I'm scratching my head a bit here...Have you tried a System Restore? I'm assuming that everything worked ok for you at some point previously. Have you recently made a big change?

Great job Bob...best yet if you don't mind me saying. Good job on the frame...:-)

Unless one of our resident guru's posts here saying that it will be ok...DON'T USE IT! I don't have much knowledge on this subject, but from what I've read this could seriously damage your laptop...:(

Not wanting to contradict DSTM, but you may find that it's the PS/2 to USB converter that is causing your problem. A USB plug and play keyboard should work straight out of the box. I'd suggest that you borrow a USB keyboard from a friend or neighbour and just plug it into a USB port on the laptop. If it works straight away...you have your answer. Then go out and buy a cheap new keyboard.

Making selections in Photoshop http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=101&pictureid=230 There are many ways of making selections in Photoshop. What we'll look at here is the most common ways of selecting parts of an image and also how we can change the properties of our selections to suit different situations. THE MAGIC WAND TOOL The magic wand tool has got to be one of the easiest selection methods in Photoshop. You'll find it in the tool bar bundled with the QUICK SELECTION TOOL. The magic wand works very well when there is plenty of contrast between the subject you want to select and its background. In the example below I'm going to use the wand to select me and my aeroplane. http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=101&pictureid=232 At first glance it looks like we have a plain white background. But on closer inspection you will see that there are traces of a bluey/greeny colour on the background. When there is an inconsistency in a background that stops you from making a clean selection with the wand, it can often be overcome by altering the wands Tolerance. Have a close look at the image below. http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=101&pictureid=233 As you can see from the blown up sections of our example image, when the tolerance was set at the photoshop default of 32, it didn't quite select all of the background. By changing the wands tolerance to 50, everything was selected as desired. Raising the tolerance selects More, and lowering the tolerance will mean that Less is selected. Experiment with this setting on an image of your own. Often, clicking in a different place will alter the result as well. Adding or Subtracting selections If you look at the image above you will see a set of 4 rectangular icons in the options bar. Each of the icons when selected does something different. Here's a blow up: http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=101&pictureid=247 Reading the icons from the left... 1) New selection 2) Add to selection (Already selected in the image) 3) Subtract from selection 4) Intersect with selection Explanation of settings one to four 1) Brand new selection 2) Click on this icon when you want to select another area of your image and not lose the first selection. This is handy when you want for example... to select a persons eyes. 3) If you've selected too much or you want to subtract from the inside of an existing selection, this is the tool to use. Example: If you had selected a persons eyes, but wanted to alter just the whites of the eyes. You could select the inner coloured parts, and these areas would not be affected by the alterations made to the whites. 4) When you make a selection over the top of part of an already selected area. The only selection you will be left with is the section where the two selections overlap each other. What does Anti-alias do? When the Anti-alias box is checked/ticked your selection edges will be smoothed/softened. This is usually a good thing. Examples of when not to check this box would be when selecting text or small graphics. What does Contiguous mean? In its simplest form contiguous means touching or joined. For example, if two people were holding hands, then they would be contiguous. But if they were standing apart, they would not be contiguous. If you look at the plane image you will see that the background is divided into 4 areas. 3 are between the wings of the plane, while the fourth is the outer area surrounding the plane. If Contiguous was left unchecked when using the wand tool...All 4 areas would be selected in one click of the wand. (Everything that is white or nearly white). The down side to this is that if there is any white (Or nearly white) areas on the plane its self, these would be selected as well. So by checking/ticking Contiguous and then making 4 separate selections we can be sure that only the background is selected, and not any areas of the plane its self. Remember...to make multiple selections the second (Add to selection) icon must be checked/selected. More selection methods to follow

Try this... Click Start Right click My Computer Click Manage Under Storage...Right click Removable Storage Choose Properties from the menu Click the Security tab Under Group or user names Highlight Administrators Under Permissions for Administrators.........Allow Put a check mark (Tick) beside... Use Control Modify Click Apply > OK Not sure if you need to reboot...But do it anyway

Hi Wil... If I was you I would go ahead and purchase as much RAM as I could afford at the given time. The 3 x 1GB sticks should do the job nicely. You have no guarantee that the older RAM will work correctly anyway. As already stated, you should also try and free up some space on your HDD, by backing up at least some of your personal files onto your external drive, and then delete what you don't need from your main drive..

Hello money24seven, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Just so we don't get confused between Memory/RAM (Random Access Memory) and Hard drive storage space. The amount of storage space you have on your computer is dictated by the size of your Hard Drive. It is possible to install a second or even a third/fourth HDD inside your computer. This will give you more storage space, but will not increase the speed of your computer. The storage space is measured in GB's. (Gigabytes) However...If the storage space is nearly all used up by the amount of Documents/Files/Photos/Videos, etc, then this can have the effect of slowing down your machine. You should always try and make sure that a minimum of between 15% and 20% of your HDD's capacity is empty. To find out how much storage space is being used on your machine...Do this: Click Start > Computer (My Computer in WinXP) > Right click on Local disk ( C: ) Choose Properties from the menu. In the window that opens you can see the total amount of space available on that drive, and also how much space has been used. As for the amount of RAM you have installed on your computer. This is dictated by how much your mother board will take. By how many memory slots there are, and also the boards maximum capacity. If you are able to...then increasing the amount of installed RAM is probably the single best way of increasing the performance/speed of your machine. Note: You should be aware that it's not only the size of a stick of RAM that dictates its suitability for your computer, but also the type of RAM. To find out how much RAM your machine will take, and also the type, then an easy way of doing this is to go to Crucials website and download their scanner. See the link below... Memory upgrades from Crucial.com - About Crucial:Media Toolbox Check (Tick) the terms and conditions box, and then click DOWNLOAD THE SCANNER Crucials scanner will tell you the maximum amount of RAM that can be installed on your computer, and also the type of RAM you need. Another good option for you would be to transfer at least some of your personal files and photos, etc, over to your external drive. This would free up space on your ( C: ) drive, and might give you a slight performance boost. Increasing RAM though is the best method. If you have any questions please post back and ask....

I'll second what Dougie has said...Thanks for the input Paul...and great use of the clipping mask..:-)

@ WhizzKid... You may have misunderstood what DSTM meant. He was not questioning Shawnh's ability to install his sisters copy of Office. I think what he meant was that if that version of Office only carried a single use licence, or if it was licenced for example for three computers...but those licences had already been used. Then, apart from it being illegal to install it on another computer. Shawnh may have had a problem with validating the software. It should also be pointed out that Free PC help will not knowingly offer assistance pertaining to use or problems with illegal software.

I'm thinking that this is a driver issue. Go to your device manager and under Disk Drives click the plus sign and then right click on the drive and click Update Driver. It's quite likely that someone else here will be able to give you more detailed advice. In the meantime, let us know how you get on.

I know you have stated that you don't want to have to spend any cash if you don't have to. But another option would be to buy an external Caddy/Enclosure...See link for just one example... Startech USB2.0 Tool Less Enclosure For SATA or IDE.. | Ebuyer.com The enclosure I have linked to caters for both 2.5in Sata and 2.5in Ide drives. One advantage of doing this is that subject to your HDD being in working order, after you have transfered/Copied your files over to your newer computer, you can then use the old hard drive as a means of backup. It effectively becomes an external HDD. You can probably find one much cheaper than the one I have linked to...(£13.62)

The MAXTOR STM3802110A is an internal 80GB HDD (IDE). Do you have more than one hard drive in your tower/PC? If you have a second HDD, this could be either Master or Slave. To find it, go Start > My Computer. How many entrys are there under Hard Disk Drives. What is the make and model of your computer?

I to was not aware that Excel could open jpegs. As Dalo has pointed out, this could be an easy option for those that don't have a graphics program... However...My personal choice would be any version of Adobe Photoshop, including Photoshop Elements (The cheap version) http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=96&pictureid=229 For those that do have photoshop the basics are as follows: 1) Open your image in the editor. 2) Choose the Elliptical Marquee Tool from the tool bar. 3) Place your cursor on the point that you wish to be the centre of your circle. Press and hold down the Shift & Alt keys, and click and drag out your circle selection. 4) Go Edit > Stroke and type in how many pixels wide you want your outline to be. Choose a colour for the stroke. Click OK. 5) Choose the Custom Shape Tool from the tool bar. Choose an arrow from the shape tool menu. Click and drag an arrow shape with your cursor. (It doesn't matter where you drag your arrow shape). 6) Hit Ctrl + T on your keyboard to enter Free Transform. From here you can alter the size and shape of your arrow, and also rotate it in any direction, by clicking and dragging on the small square handles. Use the directional arrows on your keyboard to move your arrow to the desired position. 7) Choose the Text Tool to type in your margin notes. Note: The text can also be moved via the directional arrow keys (Text layer must be selected) You can download Free Adobe trials here. These are normally 30 days. Hope this helps out..:)

http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=96&pictureid=214

I couldn't agree with Dalo more...I'm always picking Dougies brains about something or other. Thankyou Doug for helping me out so often....:D

@ DSTM...Hi Dougie, thanks for helping out here..:) @ Bob...Just as Dougie has stated, the command for blowing an image up on your screen is CTRL & + ( Thats the control key plus the + key ). And to go smaller use the Minus key ("-"). This link may help...Read the third question When you're cutting around an object/subject in an image, always blow it up really big on your screen. The link I have given above also tells how to move to a different section of a blown up image. To get into tight corners with a brush...Reduce the size of the brush. It's that simple... Use the right and left bracket keys on your keyboard to alter the size of your brush. IMPORTANT NOTE: In the OOB tutorial I suggest lowering the opacity of the frame layer when erasing the section that passes over your subject...DO NOT FORGET TO RETURN IT TO 100% OPACITY when you have finished. I've noticed on a couple of your OOB's Bob, that I can still see through the frame.

Hi Bob...here's how to post an image from one of your Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help albums. 1) Click the Quick Links tab (Near top of screen). Choose Your Profile from the menu. 2) Go to your albums and choose the album that houses the image you want to post. 3) Click on the thumbnail image you want to post. Just below your enlarged image you will see two boxes. Right click on the lower one (The BB code box) and choose Copy from the drop down menu....Or click on the text to highlight it, and hit CTRL + C to copy. http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=96&pictureid=228 4) Go to the forum you want to post your image in. When you have your cursor flashing in the place you want post your image....Hit CTRL + V on your keyboard. This will post your image in that thread.

Hi Bob, sorry I didn't make the album point very clear. For those of us that have started/included an album in our Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help profiles by uploading some of our photos. The site machinery automatically resizes those images to no more than 600 x 600 pixels, with a file size of no more than 97.7KB. This not only saves on bandwidth, but also makes the threads much neater (No scrolling from side to side). Some of us have Photobucket accounts to host our images. But the problem with uploading images to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help from photobucket is that whatever size the images are on photobucket, thats the size that will be posted in the Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help threads. Most of these are much to big for that purpose. We must remember that Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help is primarily for free assistance and advice with computer problems, and not a photo sharing site. So those of us that are interested in photo editing and photography in general should try and set a good example to other members when posting images. I have to go out now Bob, but later on today I'll post a tutorial on how to prepare and resize images using Photoshop. And also some information about how best to prepare and upload photos to our Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help albums. I do need the assistance of the likes of yourself, DSTM, Paul, and other members who share our interest to keep the site tidy. You're a friend Bob...Thanks for your support...:)

Now that is a good job Bob. You've made a better job of cutting out on this one. Just like DSTM said...Improving with every try...nice to see, thanks for posting. I've taken the liberty of resizing the image, so that those with smaller screens don't have to use a scroll bar to view. To everyone: What I'd suggest in future is to add any edits we do to our Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Albums. That way we can be sure that we're not posting images that are too big. Thanks for understanding about this. An added bonus to doing this, is that it also reduces the bandwidth used.

Hi Tom, welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help As you have stated yourself, you have data that you don't want to lose. It may be possible to backup your data by starting your computer in safe mode and then copying your files to an external media, such as an external HDD, Flash stick, etc. To get into safe mode tap the F8 key when starting your computer. If you catch this correctly, you will see a black screen with white text, choose Safe Mode from the given options. You can Highlight your choice by using the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard. And then hit Enter to make the selection. Post back to let us know how you get on.

Try this: Use the link below to download and then install Codecs. K-lite Mega Codec Pack Once downloaded, double click on the file and follow any instruction given to install the codecs.