Computers & Internet - 3 October 2007

I just bought a brand new HDD that has 160 GB of space and has 5400 rpms; i got it for a grand total of $35.00 (shipping included). I had to upgrade because my current hard drive is already maxing at 60 GB.

Now I understand there's a speed difference between 5400 rpm and 7200 rpms. And that the faster the platters (aka hard discs) spin, the faster the files can be retrieved and used. From that, two questions:

1. I only intensive thing I perform on my PC is DVD-R and CD-R burning. Is there going to be major, noticeable difference between a buringing a DVD-R/CD-R on a 5400 disc in contrast to a 7200 disc???

2. Right now, with my current drive I always burn my discs at half the top speed allowed by the disc. So if a CD-R goes up to 52x, I'll be using 24x to burn at. Likewise, a DVD-R top speed is 16x but I always use 8x. I find it's far more reliable. Will my 5400 rpm HDD affect this procedure?

3. Is the speed difference of RPM HDDs just hype? Is there a huge time gap?

2007-10-03 14:25:08 · 8 answers · asked by peapatchisland 2 in Desktops

ok Ive searched it already but the answers werent really clear..one says yes one says no..anyways I have inspiron 531 and im wondering if the PSU is propietary..cos i have a ati 2600xt in it.and i dont know if its the reason my Monitor shutsdown...cos not enough power?..although i never had any problems playing games only once maybe..but mostly on xvid divx vids..anyways i think it is the vid card..cos it never happens b4 in my onboard card..my question is if i can upgrade my psu to standard atx psu

2007-10-03 14:23:45 · 3 answers · asked by mark a 1 in Desktops

i accidently clicked mark as unsafe on an email and i cant find it in the trash or junk is their any way i can get it

2007-10-03 14:23:16 · 2 answers · asked by Chocolate_High 2 in MSN

I just upgraded my PC's memory from 256kb of RAM to 1.5GB, and it still runs slowly. Did I miss something?

2007-10-03 14:22:12 · 9 answers · asked by Alex P 2 in Desktops

my norton antivirus subscription expired today, and it is telling me to renew, but a while ago i bought spyware doctor, and i just renewed that a few months ago. so i am asking if anyone knows do they do the same job, because i don't want to spend fifty bucks renewing norton, if i already have spyware and it does the same job. please help. thank you everybody.

2007-10-03 14:21:58 · 14 answers · asked by Jenny 1 in Security

I wanted to clean my laptop up with recovery disks that I downloaded from Gateway. When it was in it's final stage with install XP it would stop at "Registers Components". I tried this a dozen times with same result.I called Gateway and explained it to them and they told me to buy a new harddrive, which I did. I got the same results. Called Gateway back and they said now it was probably the recovery disks I downloaded from them .So they sent me their recovery disk from the factory and again it would stop at "Registers Components". So NOW I tried my XP OS disk and it loaded just fine except I can not connect to the Internet. I went into Device manager and I don't have the drivers in "Other Devices" there, they have the Yellow Mark next to them. Gateway gave me a link to the drivers, I downloaded them to a flash drive and was able to install 8 of 10. The 2 that I can't get to install is "Ethernet" and "Network". Please Help.Like to solve recovery 1st, If not then the XP issue with Drvrs.

2007-10-03 14:16:20 · 2 answers · asked by James D 2 in Laptops & Notebooks

I'm looking at purchasing some "DDR2 RAM memory" which has a voltage of 2.1v.

How do I know if the motherboard I'm considering will accept this voltage.......or does it matter?

Do I have to "match" the mother board voltage to the memory voltage? If so, how?

2007-10-03 14:15:57 · 4 answers · asked by Im2hard2please 2 in Desktops

I was planning on buying a song in iTunes, but some of the prices are listed in iTunes plus prices. As far as I know, I haven't signed on to iTunes Plus, therefore, if I buy it, will it be in the regular $.99 price.

2007-10-03 14:15:28 · 5 answers · asked by Dman 2 in Other - Computers

2007-10-03 14:14:54 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Software

2007-10-03 14:12:42 · 9 answers · asked by ncsballchick19 1 in Monitors

I have an HP computer. A newer one. And it came with vista home premium. i been using it for a while and it was crappy. some things never worked and something happened cuz some programs wont work and the media keys for changing songs on the keyboard dont work. and some other things which i dont even remember cuz its been like that for a while. but i downloaded vista ultimate from a torrent (yes i know what a stupid thing to do, so dont tell me about that) i have put taht vista ultimate on another computer and it worked. but i used it to upgrade my computer and i left it for a while upgrading and it said it failed or soemthing and now i cant get my old OS back or anything. Cant i get it back somehow? THere is still stuff on there that i need. I backed up some of the things but some things wouldnt copy to back up!. What can i do? Anything? It wont boot into windows. I put the recovery disc in and it said loading windows files but it never did anything. it jus stayed at a black screen wit

2007-10-03 14:08:43 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Software

2007-10-03 14:07:19 · 3 answers · asked by Sam S 3 in Laptops & Notebooks

I keep on trying on the website but it keeps on saying installed succesfully but it still doesn't let me go on some of the websites.

2007-10-03 14:05:09 · 1 answers · asked by Juan M 2 in Add-ons

We have several offices and I was wondering if the top notch wireless card card can spots & maps more networks around the area? So far we only have 2. thx. If yes can you recommend me one?

2007-10-03 14:05:09 · 4 answers · asked by fredasita 1 in Computer Networking

I know building your own computer is by far the cheaper route but I don't have the know-how or the time. I am a gamer so places like Dell don't work for what I'm looking for. The best I've found for an alternative so far is ibuypower, but I'm told there are better deals. What are some of the best websites to buy a good desktop computer for the best price?

2007-10-03 14:04:37 · 9 answers · asked by soval7 1 in Desktops

I used a template and now it's all formatted & wont let me add information at the top!! If I "clear formatting" it jumbles the whole document!

2007-10-03 14:01:08 · 3 answers · asked by Freakgirl 7 in Software

my laserjet 3030 keeps jamming whats the problem

2007-10-03 13:59:01 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Printers

I need good security! One that protects at: Virus, Anti Virus, Spyware, Anti Spyware, Firewall,shield,pop-ups,etc! That always on! That does also not slow down my pc because I hate good security with a slow computer performance! And something ABSOULUTLY FREE AND A FREE CODE IF REQUIRED!!!!!

2007-10-03 13:56:52 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Security

i have a dell inspiron 1501. I have 1.5GB of ram and recentely i have ordered new ram from newegg.com I took my 512MB stick out and put the new 1GB stick in. So now with the new stick i have the max amount of memory which is 2GB. the ram in the one slot is pc2-4200 the new ram i have is pc2-5300. Pc2-5300 is compatitble with my laptop but when i put it in my laptop overheats very badly. Why???????

2007-10-03 13:54:18 · 2 answers · asked by dwcsoup22 2 in Laptops & Notebooks

Ok I have A dell inspiron531.amd athlon 64x2..does the 64means i have 64bit system..what makes a pc 64bit pc..i checked in my system properties and its says my system type is 32 bit..im confusedi dont know if its correct or not..cos i want to download Ubuntu..i dont know if i shud get 64 or 32

2007-10-03 13:51:20 · 4 answers · asked by mark a 1 in Desktops

the columns go on until Z and the rows go on to over 10000! How do I change it so that all I have on my spreadsheet are columns A-I and rows 1-13?
Thanks!

2007-10-03 13:49:31 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Programming & Design

2007-10-03 13:48:51 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Software

I was having a speed test done when I saw an advertisment for t1 and I saw that it was around a 100-200 dollars a month. How does it work? Why are the prices so high? How fast is it? Is it faster than Fios? I tried googling it but didnt get anything that i could understand.

2007-10-03 13:48:35 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computer Networking

2007-10-03 13:45:54 · 2 answers · asked by phillip m 1 in Laptops & Notebooks

I bought a new 22 inch LCD monitor (samsung 226bw) about a week ago but everytime I use it, it hurts my eyes because the refresh rate is too low.

When I take a look at the refresh rate it's only at 60hz. I'm pretty sure this is why my eyes hurt.

My question is why the max refresh is only 60hz for this brand new top of the line monitor? (or am I mistaken and it's possible to make the refresh higher somehow?)

more info: running windows vista at the monitors native resolution ( 1680 x 1050 ). Have installed the latest monitor software/drivers and graphics drivers but the max vista shows the monitor can go up to is 60 hz.

My old monitor was running at a refresh rate of 85 hz and I had no eye strain.

any help is appreciated!

2007-10-03 13:45:29 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Monitors

Where to begin? The laptop, while a touch slow, was working fine until last weekend; then, without any known reason, began acting very strangely. The first clue I had that something was wrong was when my BFF IM'ed me and I couldn't see any words; nor could I see my reply after I sent it....I have uninstalled and reinstalled Yahoo Messenger and AIM, to no avail. Also; when I go to some web sites that have clickable buttons (like Yahoo Answers), I wouldn't see the buttons (such as "Answer This Question") at all. I had downloaded Windows XP so I could roll back my desktop (I hate Vista, LOL), and when I would click on the link in the email they sent I would get a completely blank page; I had to have my BFF sign in from her location and email me my product key. I can't download any device drivers from the Dell website; because I get a VERY low-res website when I go there, with NO clickable links (they're there, I just don't have the option of using them). I can't reinstall IE because Microsoft detects Vista and tells me it came with Vista. I've reinstalled Java, thinking it was a platform issue. I've completely deleted everything; cookies, temp internet files, whatever they let me delete I deleted. System Restore keeps failing. Now the most recent issue is that in IncrediMail, one of my folders was COMPLETELY emptied for no apparent reason, including over 100 emails I hadn't read yet! And I can't go into AOL to retrieve them because again, no clickable links. Any thoughts? I'm lucky I can use Answers; otherwise I'd toss the comp in front of a fast-moving freight train. I downloaded Registry-Fix-It; it detected 268 problems, and after I repaired I re-scanned and it found 138 problems; for some reason it will not remove these 148 problems at all. Help!!

2007-10-03 13:41:27 · 7 answers · asked by purrfectpals5 4 in Other - Computers

im planning to upgrade my graphics card.i have a bad intergrated ati radeon xpress 200 series.people told me that i have to get a bigger power supply.is 700 watts enough heres the one im planning on getting http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2212308&CatId=106?i have a gateway GT5244E.and the graphics card is an ati radeon x1600 pro video card.512 Mb DDR2.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3265898&CatId=1826

this is the best card under my budget (unless you can recommend something better).now is 700 watts enough for my new graphics card?or should i get a bigger PSU?thanks a lot!

2007-10-03 13:35:04 · 5 answers · asked by dbsantos77 4 in Other - Hardware

In my computer (windows) its has history of most seen recently seen and search history. I want to know how i can delete all of that. Can someone please help me?

2007-10-03 13:32:39 · 21 answers · asked by calimex7 1 in Other - Computers

I am just learning how to use the software and hardware, so hardware that is beginner friendly would be nice. Also I am building this computer from scratch, so this means I would like to know hard drives, etc.

2007-10-03 13:30:46 · 2 answers · asked by Joe B 1 in Other - Hardware

They make the best #1 quality office suite in the world.

Xbox 360 works as a great, all-around multi-use game console. Which does more than just games.

Zune 2.0 is essentially iPod G5 PLUS MORE. Plus, unlike iPods, v1 Zunes are supported in this update. Kudos to MS.

Microsoft keyboards and mice work great ergonomically, and even look quite nice.

WM6 has a ton of functionality that the iPhone can barely touch.

Media Center is 10X than Apple TV/Front Row, with it's very intuitive UI, DVR functioning, and it just works.

WMP 11 is the best media management program there is. Beautiful UI, great rip/burn functions, and a bazillion skins, codecs, and tons of stuff.

Windows Vista works great on my Sony Vaio, since I bought it weeks ago. It runs super fast, offers everything OS X Tiger has plus support and more, and it just works.

Live Search 2.0 also has way improved relevancy and offers better search styles than Google.

Microsoft is awesome! What do you think?

2007-10-03 13:27:44 · 16 answers · asked by Sarah M 5 in Software