Hardware - October 2006

How can one buy the best video card if the most expensive one bought today will cost more than a budget card bought today plus another budget card bought a year from now, and in the end will be a worse card than the budget one bought a year from now?
Anyway, while you're pondering at this question, here's my system:
Core 2 Duo e6400 2.13Ghz,
P5N-SLI motherboard,
1gb Kingston 667Mhz DDR2 RAM,
250GB WD SATAII 16mb.
To make it all work, I supplied it with eVGA Geforce 7300 GS 256mb as one of the cheapest video card solutions I could find (cost me around $80 +tax). Am I losing a lot of performance with this card? I was playing Half Life 2 for a while, and didn't really experience any problems yet was wondering if any of more recent games would be slow.

2006-10-31 16:15:15 · 4 answers · asked by Negotiator 3 in Add-ons

A couple of days ago when I turned on my laptop, it made the usual sounds of startup, but the screen remained black. Thinking it was a setting that I did, I restarted it with no avail. Then today, I called Dell, and they told me to hook my laptop up to an external monitor, which I did, and it turned out the other monitor would show my desktop whereas my laptop would still be black. They told me immediately that I had a bad LCD monitor and need to get it fixed for around $400-500. Which is almost half of what I paid for it. Then i took my laptop to my computer teacher, and then a fellow student of mine made some settings, uninstalled some other monitors that I had on it (made presentations with another monitor & projector a while back) then updated my drivers. Then for some reason, my laptop scrn came back on. Thinking my troubles were over, I turned my laptop tonight, but it came on with the blackscreen.After a few mins the normal scrn came back on again. What should I do? b concerned?

2006-10-31 15:56:54 · 10 answers · asked by Dazed&Confused 1 in Monitors

the processer is a bit slow... but other than tht i dnt knw wht d prob is....sometimes whn u restart it is ok...else it goes of and u get long beeps.... can some one help????

2006-10-31 15:55:19 · 8 answers · asked by Annie 1 in Other - Hardware

2006-10-31 15:51:53 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Laptops & Notebooks

My computer says

"Disk defragmenter has detected that Chkdsk is scheduled to run on the volume: (C:).
Please run Chkdsk /f.

What is my computer telling me to do? And how do I do it?

2006-10-31 15:36:30 · 7 answers · asked by rainyday people 2 in Other - Hardware

Yesterday I tuned off my pc but I FORGOT TO remove the telepohone cable connet to modem.Whaen i turned on the pc only the cooling fan began to work.I checked and saw the chip of modem melted,Then i remove the modem.and restarted the pc.Then boot screen logo appers.But OS doesnt load..Are other patrs all destroyed or not?(I don't have money to buy a new one what i am going to do now..

2006-10-31 15:28:37 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Desktops

whats causing this? Is there anythong besides rebooting I can do?

2006-10-31 15:10:45 · 7 answers · asked by eddie9551 5 in Other - Hardware

My computer is only about 4 years old and has the USB port in the front of the tower, so:
1). Why can't I get my computer to recognize my thumb drive?
and
2). How will I get it to recognize it?

2006-10-31 15:05:00 · 5 answers · asked by Ernimay 4 in Add-ons

Ever since I upgraded to version 7, I have had nothing but problems. I hate 7! Is there a way I can go back or on. I really, really hate 7.

2006-10-31 14:52:32 · 9 answers · asked by Staci R 3 in Laptops & Notebooks

lately my other computer wont come on, because my dad pushed a button and the computer will NOT come on at all... help please??

2006-10-31 14:47:43 · 7 answers · asked by kristen 1 in Desktops

2006-10-31 14:38:27 · 7 answers · asked by Jerk 2 in Desktops

2006-10-31 14:22:05 · 5 answers · asked by Rabindra K 1 in Laptops & Notebooks

2006-10-31 14:14:36 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Other - Hardware

I have a Pentium M, 512 MB of RAM. 60 GB hard drive. 16 MB of video memory.

2006-10-31 14:09:35 · 6 answers · asked by Didgeridude 4 in Other - Hardware

what kind of flash drive should i get?

2006-10-31 14:07:08 · 7 answers · asked by TheOne 2 in Other - Hardware

pressing the power button, since I get nothing on monitor. So what next, take it for repair or throw it away? It is Emachines and it turn out to be so trubling since we got it.

2006-10-31 14:05:52 · 8 answers · asked by gil 2 in Other - Hardware

my friend has a HP and it has a remote that like controls the sound and plays and pauses movies and so on. Will it work on my Dell computer (its a Windows XP office)

2006-10-31 14:02:17 · 6 answers · asked by harry rav 2 in Desktops

2006-10-31 13:57:40 · 4 answers · asked by Andrew 1 in Laptops & Notebooks

2006-10-31 13:45:25 · 2 answers · asked by gabsy 1 in Desktops

What side is it on?

I there a photo of how it looks?

2006-10-31 13:45:03 · 2 answers · asked by hahall47 1 in Laptops & Notebooks

Could this be caused by never turning it off and the power supply over heating or something? Or is it time to pitch this thing?

2006-10-31 13:38:35 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Desktops

I really want to build a new computer. My desktop has reached a state of total uselessness. I am in desperate need of a new one, but I am afraid of committing, only to find out that I will soon have to spend more money once Windows Vista and DirectX10 come out. Thanks for the help.

2006-10-31 13:33:02 · 9 answers · asked by pros1337gg 2 in Desktops

I support employees who continually save files (not shortcuts) to their desktop, and I was under the impression that this could cause problems with speed and/or other issues with their PC's. With the newer PC's maybe it doesn't. Looking for clarification.

2006-10-31 13:16:45 · 8 answers · asked by pegeen2151 1 in Desktops

i can not go past the set up menu, my computer does not recongize the hard drive, what do i do

2006-10-31 13:11:57 · 9 answers · asked by michaelsexton1984 2 in Add-ons

2006-10-31 13:09:43 · 6 answers · asked by Barbara F 1 in Desktops

We were moving the desktop from one location on the house to another and when we connected it back up, there was nothing displayed on the monitor. So we disconnected everything and tried it again and when we tried to turn it on, nothing happen. So, we have managed to be able to turn it on once in a while but still, everytime we have, nothing shows up on the monitor. We have another Video Card in the computer and we took it out and now, it dosen't want to turn on again. So we did put it back and it still dosen't want to turn on, Please, anybody help

2006-10-31 13:01:29 · 3 answers · asked by arce2283 3 in Desktops

the computer only makes a beeping noise and will not turn on. Does anyone know what the cause might be. Windows XP.

2006-10-31 12:56:51 · 9 answers · asked by gil 2 in Other - Hardware

2006-10-31 12:46:02 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Desktops

my house burned down a month ago and my computer was in about 1000 degree heat.the front melted a tiny bit but it is still in tact.

2006-10-31 12:43:34 · 9 answers · asked by livinloud4life2000 1 in Desktops

2006-10-31 12:42:24 · 3 answers · asked by J R 1 in Desktops