Oh no! More boring computer problems! Oh no!

Where is here?

I wouldn't reship it, it may get impounded by customs and you'll have to pay import tax or something also it may get trashed,

buy the laptop in Japan... they are cheaper than most places over there anyway.

My monitor is a TFT flat panel, Acer AL1951. The refresh is set to 75hz and the res is 1280x1024. My video card is a GeForce 6600GT. Games worked fine before I installed the DVB tv card - has the tv card damaged the video card? And it was after removing the tv card that the internet died. (Thanks for helping btw)

when you get the game up the next time set to 800x600 and 60hz then load a save.

Have you tried removing the Nvidia forceware and reinstalling them?

Right. I've looked around a bit for "no signal" and "half life 2" (people have the same problem with Counter Strike, sometimes) and it seems that getting rid of Steam and reinstalling it can solve the problem. (whatever that means - can someone explain what this Steam thing is?)

(I think it could be something like the Windows XP thing where your PC isn't the same configuration anymore so you have to reinstall/reregister or something, but I'm not sure)

Steam is a content distribution system used by Valve to provide downloadable games etc to PC

So it could be "this unique ID doesn't correspond to the hardware in this PC anymore so I quit" ?

Not really, as all 3D games do it, also you would get the warning way before you got to the point where you could load up a save.

Oh fek, import taxes. Shit, didn't think about that. But we did look at the macbooks in Japan. We decided against it: different keyboards (qwerty and also the function keys are different). Hmm

ok update on my previous posts a couple of months back. i managed to fix the internet issue and i've spent the past few weeks buring date and formatting my whole pc in a bid to fix it.

i've now taken the tv card out - which seems to be the thing that has led to all this. (i tried it once with the tv card still in and now with it taken out and both results in the same thing.)

when my pc boots up a little box opens saying "error: no card found". doesn't say which card but i guess it has something to do with the graphics card. games still do the same thing - load for a bit then completely cuts out, screen goes black, nothing works, not even the power on/off button.

it also seems that something has happened to my ram. i bought my pc with 2gb ram installed but now when i right click on 'my computer' it says:
Computer:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor
3200+
2.01ghz, 1.00gb of ram
physical address extension

so somehow a gb of ram has gone missing! i've opened up my pc and both the ram and graphics cards seem to be installed properly. but when i check 'system information' it says:
total physical memory: 2,048.00mb (which i assume is the correct amount of 2gb ram)
and underneath says:
available physical memory: 763.88mb
total virtual memory: 2.00gb
available virtual memory: 1.96gb

does anyone have any advice on how to check if my graphics card and ram are installed and working ok? or how i can fix this so i can play games on it again and bring this missing gb of ram back?

I just cleaned my laptop screen with gin - is this a good idea?

i tried to set up a server with filezilla and nobody can access it :(

i even opened a port in my firewall and everyting

filezilla's a program for transfering files via ftp, nothing to do with setting up a server.

apache is a webserver if that's what you want (there are many). but setting up a webserver isn't that easy. doing it properly is much harder. setting up an ftp server is probably easier.

gin wouldn't be my first choice.

there is a server version of filezilla.

http://filezilla-project.org/wiki/index.php/FileZilla_FTP_Server

You need to do more than open the port. If you don't have a DMZ host defined, you need to redirect the port as well.

argh. i think i'll just stick to FireFTP.

sometimes when using Windows XP on various computers round the building I try to open a directory from My Computer and instead of going to the directory in question it brings up the dialog box with the 'choose which software to open this file' list and I then have to select Internet Explorer - why?

The extension of the file you are opening is not registered to an application.

1. Are you opening a directory and not a file? If so something is very wrong?
2. Are you sure it's IE and not Windows Explorer that you are selecting?

HAY EWE GUISE I NEEDS HELP

My wife downloads and installs every software update that Apple tells her to, whether she needs it or not. After installing iTunes 7.4.2, the application won't work anymore, at all. The icon bounces in the dock for a second, and then nothing.

We've repaired permissions, thrown away plist files, you name it. I looked on Software Update and there was a Quicktime Compatibility Update there today, so I uninstalled iTunes, installed the Quicktime bit, reinstalled iTunes, and no luck.

Any ideas?

Anyone?

I assume you're using tiger?

Rename the Music folder in your home directory to something else (e.g. Music-backup) and relaunch. If that works then the problem is somewhere in that folder. Try moving files out one at a time. The problem is probably with "iTunes Library" or "iTunes Library.xml". If it is, you may have to trash them (and lose your playlists and playcounts : ().

If it isn't the problem, rename Music-backup to Music and keep looking!

This is on a Mac by the way, right?

Look in the logs in Console.app

Mac yes, Tiger yes. Renaming the folder didn't help. Looked in the Console logs and nothing is jumping out at me. I tried starting iTunes with various logs open to see if they'd refresh on the fly with the error or crash message, but they don't.

Have you tried installing an older version of iTunes?

get a PC.

you tried starting it with option held down? think this should force a dialog box asking which library file to use. might get you a fraction further forward.

if they got a pc itunes would be working but nothing else would :)

xpost

Okay, retreating to an earlier version of iTunes worked. I'm still frustrated that I couldn't figure out the problem, but at least I could back up a few steps and go around the problem. Thanks everybody.

My computer (pc) plays all media files at the wrong speed. It does so in media player, itunes, and in firefox (e.g. youtube plays at the wrong speed). Everything is being played, by my estimation, about 25% too fast. I have tried updating the relevant drivers but to no avail. Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Lay off the meth?

bizzare, does it do it with MP3 or just video?

What hardware do you have and what OS?

That's crazy, especially youtube! Have you tried updating Direct X?

It does it with mp3s and videos. I'll get the hardware specs and post tomorrow. My OS is windows 2000. I did try to update direct X. I'm not 100% sure that I did it effectively.

windows 2000. hmm

do

start->run->dxdiag->okay

what version do you have?

not a problem as such, but i was wondering if anyone had experience/recommendations for home NAS stuff. I want to plug something into my wireless router as a filestore.

VERY intrigued by http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linksys-NSLU2UK-Storage-Link-Drives/dp/B0002ZDQLI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201513820&sr=8-1#moreAboutThisProduct which has some weird homebrew scene attached to it.

Looks cool.

If you already have a large USB HDD then it may be worth it.

indeed. i have a cheap USB2 enclosure or 2 and i can get hold of my own large disks to throw around. the homebrew ppl have even knocked up an http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Applications/ITunesServer for it which made it sound nice.

It runs linux, geeks be hacking.

Looks interesting I was after something like it my self, 2 power plugs though if are hooking up a non laptop drive.

I've got one of the Buffalo LinkStation NAS boxes. It comes with a built in hard disk (they come in various sizes) and you can attach a couple of external usb disks to the box and they're treated as network shares too.
It runs linux and there's an active homebrew scene.
For example I've got mine running a firefly media server so I can stream my iTunes library to a Roku Soundbridge without ever having to turn on a PC.

cheers. still looking at the buffalo stuff, but i was taken with the flexibility of just plugging in USB enclosures that you could just unplug and cart around if you liked. more bothered about that than data rate or mad plug multiplication. behind my telly

Telly plug
Wii plug
DVD plug
cable set-top box plug
wireless router plug
'media box' plug

if i have to plug in the USB external that's another plug out in the open. i'd rather have 2 more hidden out of view. esp if it does l33t haXoR tricks

Ah, plug proliferation, I keep my wireless router in the same room as the PCs & NAS. I stream the audio over wireless to the Soundbridge attached to my Denon.

that'll be my next trick, some wireless gadget to stream to the stereo

start->run->dxdiag->okay yields version 8.1 (4.08.01.0881)

boring, did it ever play stuff at the right speed? in any case, i'd try

start -> run
sfc /scannow

this can take a few hours

The problem is not resolved I'm afraid. Can I quikcly clarify what sfc/scannow will do before I commit my computer to a few hours of it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_File_Checker

It could also be a BIOS issue (maybe the bios thinks the CPU is a different speed? i dunno).

I have updated my DirectX to version 9.0. I'll run the file checker tomorrow and will post with an update. Cheers

have you installed any new media players/codec packs recently?