Nash and LordKat,

Thank you for your show and answering my prior question.

I have an Acer Aspire laptop which is several years old (2007) and I've noticed some major performance drops in it. When I first got it, it could handle video, online high def movies, and even some console emulating and online MMO's (namely LOTRO set to minimum quality) without any major problems, but then it slowly began to degrade and I installed a core-temp program to monitor the situation.

I noticed that the processor's cores were spiking out at about 65 C back in the day. Over time, this has slowly gotten worse and now the computer regularly hits my 100 C cut-off temp which I have set to put my computer to sleep at (no sense baking my processor.)

Now, I do believe this is entirely because of dust I can remove by lifting out my keyboard, but I am quite reluctant to open up my laptop--at least while it's still my main laptop--because my experience prior to this is minimal and entirely with desktop computers.

First, I want to know if I can raise that 100 C processor limit safely. From what I've read, the "normal" temperature for my processor is about 70 C, but I have found nowhere an indication of what the "maximum safe" temperature is. I just use 100 C because it was my temp-monitor's default, and it seems reasonable.

Second, I'm thinking of just getting a new laptop for a lot of other reasons (like the cheap screen-latch is broken so it's almost impossible to open) so I'm thinking of getting a new laptop and having fun with this one, and by "have fun" I mean open it up, get rid of that dust (because I don't have to worry about destroying my main laptop anymore) and installing Linux. What version of Linux should I use for an older laptop? My last experience with Linux was Mandrake 7.

Also, there's a matter of timing for what I should get as this laptop's replacement. Should I bother going quad-core for a laptop? As that practically all of my factory premade options are Intel, anyways, should I limp along with my present laptop for an Ivy Bridge trigate processor a year or so from now--Which I can do; it's not like going without PC gaming or watching online videos on a low power-setting will kill me so much as be unpleasant--or pull the trigger and get a new laptop with an i5 or i7 now/ in the near future?

What I have:

Acer Aspire 5735
Intel T3400 dual-core processor
2 GB Ram
732 MB "media accelerator" (wtf is that anyway? Prehistoric built in graphics?)
2 65 GB Hard Drives
32-Bit Windows Vista

What I'm thinking of getting if I buy now and don't wait for Ivy Bridge:

Alienware M14X
Core i7 processor
8 GB Ram
3 GB Nvidia graphics card
500 GB Hard drive
64-bit Windows 7
...And it doesn't have a num-pad... :(

Dear Lordkat and Nash,

I’ve just moved into a new flat and my roommate has the following problem: her laptop can’t find ANY wireless networks, even though the signal is strong enough (5 out of 5 bars) and both my second roommate and I can access our shared wifi network without any problems. I tried accessing the network from her room on my PC and it works just fine.

She is using an HP Pavillon dv9500 Notebook PC with an AMD Turiton ™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 2.0 Ghz processor, 2047 MB of ram, a Broadcom 4321 AG 802.11 a/b/g draft-n wifi-adapter and Vista 32 Home Premium.So far I’ve tried the following things to help her fix the problem with her wifi connection:

- Make sure that wifi is enabled.
- Make sure wifi services are enabled.
- Make sure that her wifi adapter is enabled.
- Update drivers for both her wifi adapter and HP Wireless Assisstant.

Funny thing is that the girl living in my room before I moved in had the same problem, while using a completely different PC with a different setup (don’t have the specs on that one, unfortunately).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Love your show.

Best Wishes from Germany
Seneti

*Question has been answered.

Hey Lord Kat and Nash... again...

You might remember a few weeks ago I posted here about how my laptop was freezing at random times, and I have deduced the problem down to 1 thing: my cable router. The freezing’s started the day that I got Virgin Media installed in my house and started using their free Super Hub as my soul modem and router and the freezing’s only occurred when I was downloading two diffrent things at the same time, eg. streaming games off steam and watching videos online. I have learnt that the Intel display and graphic accelerator drivers on my computer that are crashing and causing the freesings but have no idea how to fix it as there isn't an option to roll back. EDIT: And now my laptop has blue screened with the error message "DRIVER IRQL IS NOT LESS OR EQUIL".

I recently went on holidays, took the laptop with me and used my USB 3g aerial to connect to the internet as well as using the occasional free Wi-Fi zone and had no lock ups at all during the 3 weeks I was away, so I presumed that it had been fixed with another windows update, but it hasn’t. 5 seconds in the door and many steam updates all at once make it almost impossible to use. I know consumer routers are a mess from your many tirades on them on T3 and How to Do It, but can they really cause my computer to lock up for 30 seconds to 5 minutes constantly?

I do kind of have a solution already, and that is a Linux router. I have an old off the shelf computer from 2007 lying around, and its stats fit the ones you recommended a few weeks ago conveniently well, however I don’t really know how to make a build of Linux to run as a router, nor about any additional hardware I might need to get it working, other than an Ethernet card as predictably it only has one Ethernet port right now. Bear in mind that I need to have Wi-Fi and many Ethernet ports for all the appliances I need to plug in.

Oh and since I somehow forgot last time here are the specs for my laptop:

Windows 7 64 bit home premium
Intel Pentium processer dual core @2.2ghz
4gb ram
64mb Mobile Intel 4 series express chipset family
300gb Hdd

And here’s the stats for the computer I’m proposing to turn into a Linux router:

Windows Vista 32bit Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Duo @2.0ghz
2gb ram
512mb ATI Radeon 1650 SE
250gb hdd (Burnt out but works. Could easily replace if necessary)

By the way am I completely out of my depth here with the whole Linux router idea?

Hey Lordkat and Nash, big fan of both of you guys. So, my problem is that the family's modem is acting up for the last couple of months. If you connect wirelessly to it, it would be acting perfectly fine then drop it's internet connection and resets itself. There really isn't any pattern to it I could be trying to watch your stream, trying to watch a video on youtube, or just on a chat, and it'll drop. You would think it was caused by too many things are trying to access it but it goes off if only I'm accessing it or more than one is. If you connect by the Ethernet cord, then there's no problem at all. We have an AT&T 2Wire Gateway 2701HG...yeah...not my choice at all. I've tried everything, going through it on the computer, I've unplugged both the phone cord and power plug. I'm just about ready to summon the devil to try an help me...meaning calling AT&T and I don't wanna do that until I have to. Any bit of help would be appreciated, thanks a lot.

Hey Lordkat and Nash and Mark, I've been having some problems with my videocard Hd5770. From what I've gathered is that this card has a bad BIOS programmed into it from the factory, so its not exactly running at optimal speeds. So my question is could you guys help walk me through flashing my video card BIOS?

The model is the PowerColor HD5770 1GB GDDR5 (AX5770 1GBD5-H). I'm new to messing around with DOS, and I probably will try to make a bootable flash drive. I've searched around and haven't found a step by step guide that's thorough enough, and I do not want to end up bricking my video card. So I was hoping you guys could give me a step by step for a novice at stuff like this.

Thanks!

*Nevermind I figured it out, eventually. Was pretty painless once I knew what to do.

Greeting and salutations LordKat and Nash, i've recently come into some money and would like to build a computer, I would like to spend around £5,000 but can go as high £7,000 if needs be. Basically what I would like to do is build a video editing/gaming machine that would rival the might of the gods so please could you give me an idea of parts i should look for, which ones will give better performance for what I want to do, the kind of specs I can expect for spending that much money. Many Thanks.

lordkat and nash,

i plan on making some guitar videos with a video in video style (ex: bigger video me playing lead, smaller video rhythm). i was wondering if i could do this with a program currently on my laptop or if i need to buy a specific program. my second question relates to the best way to record the sound. my options are using the built in mic on my laptop and turning the volume up on the amp, using a microphone connected to the microphone jack and setting the mic next to the speaker, or running a cable from my lineout jack on the amp and connecting to the micropphone jack on my laptop.

thanks

Microprocessor 2nd generation Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor 2.00GHz
Memory 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 DIMM)
Video Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6570 graphics
Video Memory 1024MB GDDR5
Hard Drive 1TB (5400RPM)
Multimedia Drive LightScribe Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer Support

dear Hitobatosai i can anwser you first question with ease adobe premier pro will let you do exactly what you want in the program with little fuss, just record the two clips place them in the timeline over each other and resize the one you want smaller, audio mixing might be difficult but once you understand the exploits its easy. And premier will definatly work on your computer. Your second question is slightly trickier but there is a solution there are 35mm (or however big the jack for a guitar is) to usb leads you can buy that can connect to generic audio recording software such as audasity or come with they're own software, so you can connect it straight to your giutar to record or go through your amp if you need to add effects pedals and all that stuff. heres a link to the kinda lead you need to give you an idea of the price and such http://www.maplin.co.uk/guitar-to-usb-lead-225789 . Yours firefry1

thanks, i appreciate it.

Hey Guys,
love the show especially your reactions the the lulzy questions you guys get sometime. My new computer case has 3 fans installed (mounted in the front, side and rear) but I am have a problem with controlling them. The Gigabyte GA-970-UD3 mainboard I use has 3 jack on it for system fans and software for controlling each fan. However, no matter how much i try to change their speeds with the software they spin at the same speeds. Do either of you have any recommendations for either fan controllers that fit in a 5-1/4" or 3-1/2' bay. Preferably one that doesn't have giant glowy LEDs you can see from mars.
Much Appreciated and Thanks.

Hey LordKat and Nash. I would like to know how to clean off a LCD laptop monitor and also how to remove streaks left behind by LCD cleaning wipes. They aren't much of a problem but are very distracting when I watch a DVD or play a game with alot of black space.

so, i just upgraded my 13 inch MacBook pro to osx Lion, and ever since i did that, the machine has actually become slower and has gotten a few more bugs. Now the main problem is that at random during me using it, it will suddenly become incredibly slow, to the point that i cannot do anything but shut it of with the power button, then turn it back on ad it will run fine again.
one time a little window popped up that said "Not enough memory to run requested application" or something, and it said i had to shut down a program or two...and this was while not a single program was running. This is a 2.66 GHz intel core 2 duo, 4 GB Ram Mac.

Now, my Mac has had a little accident about two months ago, that involved my music teacher thinking it was a book, and dropping it on the floor and this ended up with the mac having a minor "dent" in it, now i don't know if this has something to do with the problem, but i think it was worth mentioning.

Ps.
My school denies to pay for the repair of my mac, which got dented ENTIRELY because of one of their employees, and this is a really dick movie since i am actually leaving that school when the vacation is over.....
yeah, But thanks for your help guys. Lots of love from Norway! <3

Good evening LK & Nash. I am not the most tech-savvy person in the world and while this should logically lead to me watching your show so I can actually learn about something I'm weak in, to be honest the subject just doesn't juice my cherries. However, I am still having problems with the IRC which seems to be fixed for everyone else, or at least most everybody else. The login and text screen appears all the way in the upper right hand corner of the designated white area to the right of the stream screen, with the result that only a portion of what I should be able to see can be seen. Since I seem to be the only one, or at least one of few, with this problem what do I need to do to get this working properly?

Ok, this is getting annoying for me. For the past couple of weeks my computer after about 30mins - an hour my connection will decide to crap out and not connect for me. I will be browsing the internet and all of a sudden when i go to a new page i will get the "can not connect" or "404" page. The pages i stay on like your stream page will still be fine but i will not be able to browse anymore. I find myself restarting my computer and the process repeating at least 5-7 times a day.

I have searched the internet with no real results and i have tried restarting my connection, using other connections and the problem still continues. I do not know what to do. Please tell me WTF is going on. Thank you.

-Kane987245

Edit: if you get to this already at this point just ignore it.

Hi LordKat and Nash.

I'm thinking about installing Linux on my laptop, which I mainly use for school and browsing.
However I would also like to be able to play some games on it (mainly older games), and I was wondering if this it is possible in Linux or if it is a huge pain in the ass?

Hey Jason and Nash, thanks again for the advice last time (I found a way around that problem, given my insane work-schedule). Unfortunately, like a hydra, I now have several other questions which I'm hoping you have the time and patience for.

1.) (REDACTED)

2.) All of my media is on my Win7 box, however there's three other PCs in the house that use XP and want to stream my media over the network. How do I get all of our computers to mingle?

3.) I have an HTPC in the living room with a wireless-N adaptor, It's a Netgear dual-band, and is supposedly the most powerful around; yet it's not getting good reception seeing as how the router is one floor below and about 30ft away. Are there ways of resolving this issue without just drilling holes in the floor and running cable?

3a.) That same computer is also running XP, and has a blu-ray drive. Since XP doesn't understand what the hell a BR drive is, are there any generic drivers to help XP along (Or is installing Win7 my only hope here)?

4.) And finally: What would be your best recommendations for saving electricity throughout the house (Besides just turning off all the lights and TVs when not in use)?

*Whew!*

I love the show, I'm nudging my co-workers to check out the site, and overall; it's an awesome public service you and Nash are doing. Take care.

Hello Lordkat and Nash, I am having frequent disconnects (2-4 times almost every day). Now I've noticed Chrome will spit out DNS errors at me. Naturally after hearing about using Google's public DNS, I gave that a shot. No luck. Sometimes the problem even worsened. I get disconnected using every application. I have pinged several sources to test out what is going on and nothing comes back.

Now I thought I dig a little bit deeper and use Wireshark. There are a lot of black bars popping up left and right on over laying IP addresses. I don't know what this means, and the Wire Shark forums and users have been of no help. I think it may be a router issue.

The router I use is a Motorola SGB901, I've checked if UpnP is enabled it is. I've checked for mac blocking and port forwarding nothing changed. My roommate and I have shared this connection for over a year, he has no trouble at all with his devices wired or wireless. My PS3 and PC both lose connections wired and wireless at random intervals. One night the router was blinking sporadically nothing like a typical update from an ISP, just crazy random blinking, of all lights at the same time in some pattern. I can't find any information on the phenomenon happening. However, the router when viewing its event log shows these alarming errors and failures. I can't find what they mean, do you guys know?

My one other problem is more of a side project. I have found the video url address for the stream using Wireshark, but it is missing parts of it to make it work for VLC, have you any ideas on what the complete link should be? This is what I could find so far:"j-tv/iX6d5nMr7Sg5H8d1B" . I've seen RTMP streams work with VLC on YouTube, I don't know why I am having so much trouble on my end. Also is there any way to add websites such as justin.tv to the internet media playlist in VLC or any media site for that matter?
PS Thank you for your feedback on what cooling setups are possible, and all about Fan vs Water Keep up the good work!

Below: These router event log errors have happened all year.
Fri Aug 19 13:01:15 2011 Error (4) DHCP RENEW sent - Invalid DHCP option
Time Not Established Warning (5) ToD request sent - No Response received
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Requested Info not supported.
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Request sent, No response
Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP FAILED - Discover sent, no offer received
Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out (US 2)
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC f...
Time Not Established Critical (3) SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire (The errors repeat so I thought I just cut off here)

Edit: I will be in class so I will be unable to answer any questions during the live cast of the show.

Hello, LordKaT and Nash!

In December, I installed an art program on my external hard drive. I didn't use it for several months and attempted to open it in July. For whatever reason, it wouldn't open properly. After a few attempts to open it, I tried to uninstall the program, but my computer could not find the uninstall file because it was located on my external hard drive. I got frustrated and deleted all the files for the program from my external hard drive and from my laptop. However, when I go to my control panel and look at the "uninstall programs" list, the art program is still listed there, and it won't uninstall because it can't find any of the program's files. I've tried to reinstall the program, but my install CD isn't working - when I put it in the computer and click "install program," nothing happens.

Is there any way I can fix this and reinstall the program, or am I screwed over unless I totally wipe my laptop or get a new one? Thanks for your time, I appreciate any help you can give me. :)

My CPU cooler died recently and decided to buy new computer instead of cooler.
I now have AMD Phenom X4 965, Club 3D 6770 and 8gb 1600mhz ram. I realized that ram is kinda cheap as 8gb was 55 euros and I was thinking if I should get extra 8gb so I would have 16gb ram. How much would this affect performance wise.
I normally just play TF2, minecraft etc but I do use photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro quite often.

Hey, guys! I love listening to your shows, and now I have a question for you.

I recently tried to play Fallout 2 through Steam on my Windows 7 PC, but got an error when it tried to switch to 600x480 resolution. I tried to change it manually and found that my computer apparently does not support this. I imagine that resolution isn't supported by my video card, that being an ATI Radeon HD 4350. Then again, maybe it's Windows 7 that doesn't support it?

The question is, is this something that could be solved by emulating, say, Windows XP, or do I need to get myself an older video card?

Thanks in advance!

Ignore this, Avast had problems with false positives the last day or so and its been resolved in the latest definitions. Sorry to take up this space, is there a way to delete posts here?

Just ran a custom scan in Avast, result came back with;
process 1968 [mdm.exe] memory block 0x00000000002 Threat: Win32:Kelihos-S [Trj]
But when I try to apply an action nothing happens.
Looked at the process, went to the folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\VS7DEBUG) scanned with a right-click scan and it comes up no threat.

Hi Mister LordKitty and Nashiepoo,

I'm looking into buying a new PC, and I have a 1200.00 doller budget, I listed below what I currently have on my wishlist at Newegg and would like to know if anything can be improved on or if I maybe forgetting anything. With the listed parts below, my total is at 1017.37, so I do have a little bit of wiggle room. I'd really like another opinion befor I make an investment as large as this one. Thanks for your time and really looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say.

Acer G235HAbd 23'' 5ms 1920x1080 WideScreen LCD monitor

Rosewill RNX-N300X IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft 2.0 PCI Wireless Adapter

SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Combo Mode

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100314VXSR Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)

BIOSTAR TPOWER i55 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80

PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

I do know I am missing a hard drive, but I do currently have 2 1TB Western Digital's I plan on using.

Link to the wishlist, just in case: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=16752412

Hey LK and Nash.

I recently bought a new monitor (a Dell SR2220L) and when I hooked it up to my computer through an HDMI cable and set it to 1920x1080, the picture wasn't taking up the entire screen. It is the right resolution, but there's a black box surrounding it.

I poked around on Google and, apparently, the problem was my video card "underscanning" the image. (The card is an ATI Radeon 4850, can't remember which exact 4850, except that it's one of the "IceQ" cards on this page: http://www.hisdigital.com/us/product1-57.shtml?57&_lang=us&p=2) Also, to make sure it wasn't the monitor, I looked closer at my TV when hooked up to the computer and there was also a black box, albeit smaller. According to random sites, the underscanning could easily be fixed by going to the ATI Catalyst Control Center and turning it off. Except, for some reason, the CCC just isn't on my machine. Attempts to downloading it have simply not worked, the downloader getting to the same point (giving the option to Install or Uninstall) and having it just do nothing. I even reinstalled all the video card drivers with no change.

I'm not sure why the damn CCC won't install, but I'm wondering if using a DVI-to-DVI cable would have the same problems. But if it would, I dunno what to do. So I turn to you two! Thanks for any help.

Ohai LK and Nash, I've got 2 questions if you don't mind taking a look at them;

I'm going to pre-face this with a shameless plug; recently I had my graduation from Uni leaving with a Masters in Computer Forensics and System Security GO ME! :D

The first question is relatively simple, whilst I am very tech savvy, there was something I could never really find a direct answer too, essentially I run an AMD system, however I am using 4GB OCZ Gold DDR3 RAM (soon to double or triple that) which says ''Optimized for Intel CPUs'' now I do know that Intel CPU's tend to run on a lower voltage or wattage (1.4 I believe) than AMD who run slightly higher. Is that really the only reason that they add that small caption of is there another underlying reason?

Secondly my current system which I built for about 400 to 500 pounds is a rather decent system over the course of a few months since I didn't have the money to built it outright

Currently using;

AMD Black Edition OC to 3.7Ghz with a Arctic Freezer 7
4GB DDR3 1333mhz OCZ Gold
ATI HD 6770
Asus M4A78LT-M
OCZ 720w PSU (Normal running is around 600w)
2x 1TB internal HDD and 1 128GB SSD (OCZ Vertex 2) for Windows, WoW, LoL and EvE Online
1 8x Blu-Ray reader and 24x DVD R/W.

My question is, is there anything I am missing or could improve on to increase longevity? I really would just like an idea on what my next step might be in the future, I'm looking at as above doubling or tripling the RAM and getting an AM3+ Mobo but is there anything else you could suggest?

P.S. If your wondering how I built this so cheap, the simple answer is almost everything there I bought was on sale the SSD only cost me £80 if I remember correctly and everything else was under £70 when I bought em. Except the GFX which was about £90 and the ram was and is still only £23 lol

Thanks and keep up the good work! Btw Nash my hair is longer than yours :3

@Titmouse
Stay the hell away from Biostar. So many people complain about it. Their products are crap.

Hi LK, Nash, and (possible) guests!

EDIT: After doing extra research on google, Maluku's post and newegg, I've answered the original question myself. I'm gonna strikethru it all, however, feel free to read my derpiness. New question after all this:
I've got 2 MoBo's sitting around and collecting dust, and I'm just interested if it's worth any trouble upgrading their CPU's. Both are single-core cpu's. One Motherboard is a SiS 741GX-M motherboard, with an AMD Athlon XP 3200. That's (I believe) socket A (socket 462). The only processors that are compatible are the Duron and Sempron. I'd really like to upgrade to a dual-core CPU if at all possible, only because single core ... is kinda crap for Windows 7. So ... just to confirm, that CPU is not upgradeable, right? Now comes the second one ... It's an ASRock 775i65G. It says that it supports Core 2 processors as well, since it has LGA775. I call BS. The processor on board right now is a P4 @ 2.66 GHz. It's the P4 506. Intel's site says it works on PLGA775. I've tried upgrading it before to a P4 that Intel's site said supported LGA775. You can imagine my surprise when I saw the on-board P4 had no pins while the one in my hand had pins ... I'm not sure if this a new standard (if it is, I hate you intel) however, what processors are compatible with this? How much money am I looking at spending to get a new processor for this one? Is it even upgradeable? Should I just go for a new motherboard with an AMD processor?
EDIT Cont'd: it costs ~200 to buy a core 2 duo, and this motehrboard uses DDR, I'm thinking it's time for a new motherboard. Since I'm looking at intel and the price and cringing ... what processor should I get for an AM3+ board (~90 CAD)? Should I just wait until the Bulldozer comes out and get that and the motherboard as a package? Thanks, and sorry for the confusion.

Hi LK, Nash, and (possible) guests!

Woohoo, I feel validated

So what Core 2 Processor did you buy there? Cause every one I bought had no pins on them
And we are talking about Core 2's here right. Like Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and the like. Not Core i3, i5 or i7, cause those have different sockets and are not Socket 775 like the P5.

Edit cause Chaos_Marine pointed out that this might have been worded ambigiously

This is an oddity which I was able to find some bit of closure with thanks to Nash saying that Creative Blaster sound cards won't allow the mic to work with Win7 64Bit and having more than 4GB of ram. I had the problem and it stumped me as I checked just about every single audio setting and found nothing. Now for the interesting thing. I had the exact same problem with the onboard Realtek sound card. Updated to the latest audio drivers for it and same issue. Tried it through the back audio sockets, my case's front audio sockets. I have a Logitech G35 headset which works perfectly so this isn't an immediate problem but I'd be really interested in why my standard sound cards won't let me record?

[Edit]

Maluku

Hi LK, Nash, and (possible) guests!

Woohoo, I feel validated

So what Core 2 Processor did you buy there? Cause every one I bought had no pins on them
And we are talking about Core 2's here right. Like Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and the like. Not Core i3, i5 or i7, cause those have different sockets.

The latest intel chips have the pins on the motherboard and not the chip.

Hi, me again. Thanks for the help with the bridge, it was indeed derp and I have gotten rid of it and since I have my general wireless network performance has actually improved!

Anyway, I've run into a couple of issues with my pc lately:

1. My wireless keyboard and mouse (Logitech cordless desktop EX110) have started freaking out the last few months. They will act as though I'm holding or constantly hitting a key, and not respond to anything else for a time. Repositioning helps sometimes, though it usually happens again... however, I recently found that if I plug the receiver into a powered hub, it works fine. I've had it for a pretty long time, something on the order of 4 years. Can these devices become power-hungry with age?

2. Twice now I've had situations where Windows just outright stops responding shortly after starting it up. If I CTRL+ALT+DEL it eventually gives me a black screen with a window that says "Failure to display security and shut down options". I recently replaced my ram with two 8 gig sticks( http://bit.ly/nbQXvD ), and it worked fine for a week afterwards. Still I suspected it was the ram so I put it through both the memory test on the Win7 disk and Memtest86+, neither one found any problems other than the ram was running at 1332mhz rather than 1600, which I don't particularly care about. I also attempted an install repair but THAT couldn't find anything wrong. Then I did a disk check on both the SSD and hard drive and it went by too fast for me to even see if either one fixed any problems or not.
The second time it hung up it eventually started working normally after a few minutes.
Do you guys have any idea what's going on? Thanks.

To anyone asking about linux routers: Look up Smoothwall or PFSense, that and an extra lan card should get you started.

Hey Nash and lordkat,
recently discovered your how to do it show; very informative, good job.

I myself also have a question. I have as a second screen and HP L1906 monitor. The monitor used to work great, but now when I turn it on it takes more then 10 minutes to actually work. After that it still works and looks like it should. When turning it on it the led just keeps blinking orange (when it turns yellow it means its ok). It does this being connected with my laptop or not begin connected at all. It connects with a standard vga cable. I tried messing around in settings but nothing seems to help it. (not even factory reset).

Some time before I had this black bar at the right side of the screen, i changed the vga cable but that did not resolve it. That problem however resolved itself after a few tries.

I tried google but I haven't found a solution yet. Is this just a sign of my monitor dying?

ok guys I also have a second question. I'm gonna be building my first desktop pc in a couple of weeks and I was wondering if you could comment on some of the parts.
What I already have bought:
Case: Antec Three Hundred
Internal Disc: SSD OCZ VTX3-25SAT3-120G
Internal Disc:Western Digital WD2002FAEX (2 tb)
RAM: Corsair 8 GB DDR3-1600 Kit (2x4GB)

What I am planning to buy:
Scythe Samurai ZZ SCSMZ-2000 (cpu cooler)
EVGA GeForce GTX570 HD
Intel® Core™ i5-2500K (cpu)
Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 (power supply)
Samsung SH-B123L (dvd/bluray reader)
ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (motherbord)

What I want it to do: last for a while, be able to play newer games in good quality. This is for a "reasonable price". I also will do some video encoding, but I'm pretty sure that no mater how powerful your cpu and how much ram you have it will always take way to long.

So the questions: "Should I add something else? Like an extra fan?"
"Would there be any parts you would recommand using something different, or more?
"Any special notes regarding butting the thing together?"

and finally: "What would you put on the ssd (besides operating system" and what not?

thank you for your time. (Greetings from Belgium)

EDIT: I will also be getting this monitor I think:
LG E2360V-PN
I know jack about monitors, but I choose a TN one for the price range.
Any recommendations for a 23-24 inch monitor?

My sisters laptop is at most times extremely slow, she can't afford to buy a new laptop (I wish she could, I hate dealing with Vista) would it be worthwhile buying a 16gb usb stick for £15 and using it with ReadyBoost, if so how much of a performance boost could she expect to see? (I think she has 1gb of RAM)

On the otherhand, my desktop is running Windows 7 and has a 4GB quad core, and as its been said, adding more RAM always helps, but would using ReadyBoost this way be sufficient since I only use my PC for mainly browsing and I'm not the kind of person whos confident in opening it up and adding stuff? Would it actually make a noticable difference?

Also out of interest would there be any difference between using a USB stick or an SD card?

Thanks for your time.

Hello Nash and Lordkat and ofc Maluku(if you are in this HTDI),

I'm recording Co-op Let's Plays with a group from the LKM (stand up kids!), via me actually playing and sending (and recording) the gamepolay footage via xsplit to skype group video call to the peepz can see what's going on and read their lines in the Point&Click games.

Problem is that skype asks for cash when I run out of the 7 day free trial; so far I created extra accounts and abused the 7 day trial.
I can't do it thru web-stream because the delay seems to pile up so our very first footage has audio delay of 5 to 30 seconds...

My question now:

Do you guys know any way for me to get the footage live (with up to 1 second delay if necessary) to the group without spending any cash?

I've searched the internet for anything resembling video chat/video conference tools but the freeware ones either lack 25fps/fullscreen/a resolution bigger than 240p/arent for free(for a group)...

Skype works improvised for the old dos games but I also want to share bigger resolutions in the future once we finish Leisure Suit Larry 6 and Indiana Jones 4; so a possibility of 1080p would be epic...

PS: Pc Stats: Intel i5 quad 2,66ghz
2x4gb ram, Ati Radeon HD 6870 XFX

100mbit down, 10mb up

I will try to be in the chat as Vogerl_Birdy to answer any questions that come up;

Plugging self:

check out http://austrobird.blogspot.com for Coop LPs, Solo LPs, Ironclaw and Feng Shui Sessions!

Thank you very much in advance!

Heller LordKat and Nash,
I would like to downgrade my DirectX from 11 to 9 since I know for a fact that my Laptop graphics cannot support DX 11. When I bought Garrys Mod and TF2 i opened it i noticed that when I played it was Hella slow so I turned down the video settings to lowest and same problem, I noticed when I play Valve games, and I turn down the video settings to the lowest I see that the game says I have DX 8 even though DX 11 is installed on here which I'm aware it is not supported. I've tried to install DX 9 hoping that would work but when i Restart and type DXdiag it says i still have DX 11 installed. Does having a unsupported DirectX have any effect over it? Any idea's or have I been given a Used computer that screwed me over on graphics.?
Note: This is not my Derp Desktop from Q&A Thread 3 Question #23 that computer I'm trying to salvage.

Tech Specs:
MS Windows 7 Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.73GHz (1st Gen =\)
4GB Ram
Mobile Intel 945 Graphics (S**T Graphics)

Compliments of my parents for not waiting to get me a fresh laptop after my birthday (Mar 2011) instead of a Windows Reloaded Laptop that looks like the ones at My School which are about 5yrs old. Ugh the Crappy Computer Curse is upon me.

Hello LordKat and Nash

A while ago I found and got rid of some viruses but when I went to open the task manager it said it was disabled by the administrator, which is me. I also found that the command prompt and registry editor were also disabled. How can I enable them again. If it helps I'm using windows 7.

Hello to LordKat, Nash and Mark

I have a question about cooling, I am looking to get a new computer for a birthday present and im wondering which is better, water cooled, or fan. Also since my computer right now is a mac I need to get a monitor, how do I know which one fits my computer or are all of them the same.

Thanks guys for the help.

Hey How To Do It,

I just started getting some pretty nasty hardware troubles on my home-built PC, and I was hoping you could help me nail down what's going wrong with my system.

I built the computer in 2008. Specs (as far as I remember): Intel Q6600 Quad Core 2.4 GHz, 4 Gigs Gskill DDR3 RAM, Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT +, Asus Mobo, Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS, 1 TB Seagate HD.

I stored my computer in a basement over the summer. Much to my dismay, all of the clothes I had stored there were covered in mold. My guitars were rusted out as well. I determined that there must have been a lot of moisture in the air all summer, and, as you could imagine, this made me very paranoid about my computer. As far as I can tell, it looks fine (just a bit dusty), and I didn't notice any rust. I sprayed out all of the dust with an air canister and fired up the machine.

The first night, it ran just fine, and I didn't notice any failures. The second night (last night) I ran it all night as a sort of burn-in test. When I woke up this morning, the computer was still running, but the screen was blank with "NO SIGNAL" printed across it. The machine was unresponsive, so I restarted it.

Now, every time I start the machine, after exactly 40 seconds, the screen loses signal and the machine becomes unresponsive. If music is playing, it continues to play after the screen goes blank, but after 10 seconds or so any sound output also stops (or loops/screeches).

This is the case if I boot into Windows, Linux, or even if I run terminal utilities like Memtest or run the BIOS config -- the machine just stops outputting after 40 seconds and becomes unresponsive, its lights blinking and fans spinning.

What's the best way to debug this to see exactly which components are failing? I know it's almost certainly a hardware problem, but I'm not sure where to look first. Perhaps the video card is failing, or its a heat issue?

Thanks!

Hola, LordKat and Nash:

At the end of each episode, you've made a point to mention that you take questions about more than just computer hardware. That's good to hear, since I'm pretty comfortable with most of my computer hardware, but markedly less comfortable with the crap in my kitchen.

Specifically, I've gotten very uncomfortable with my Emerson MW8119SBM microwave. After reheating some leftovers yesterday, the alarm indicating the cook cycle was finished sounded and everything shut down, except the magnetron. That was happily humming away, roasting the crap out of my food and heating itself up (on account of the cooling fans shutting down at the end of the cook cycle), until I yanked the power cord from the wall. Earlier today, I plugged the microwave back in, in the hopes that this was a one-off glitch. The magnetron immediately kicked back on, and after I ran a short cook cycle, it again failed to switch off, until I pulled the power.

My current inclination is to consign this microwave to the skip, but being that it's only two years old, I thought it worth asking: Is this a problem that can be fixed, and if so, how do I do it (preferably without electricuting myself on the giant capacitor associated with the magnetron)?

This is a weird situation I stumbled upon. We have a Vizio LCD HDTV in a room, as well as a Haier air conditioning unit. The A/C has its own remote(I think), but I accidentally found out that the TV remote can control the A/C as well. While a nifty feature when we can remember what buttons control what, I'm wondering if there's any real way to fix it so the remote does not interfere with the A/C(other than moving one of the machines out of the room).

Now, if that question's not really in you guys' area of expertise, I have an alternate question.

I have an "old" Mac Pro(Boot Camp'd to run Windows XP Pro) that at some point just showed a garbled mess of graphics on the screen before going to black. Trying to boot up back up resulted in the monitor's "on" light blinking 3 times. According to the owner's manual, this is supposed to mean a video issue. After leaving the computer off for a long time, it turned back on as normal for a while before having the same problem. I'm almost positive that it's a video card(an nVidia 8800gt) issue, but I'm not sure how to really be certain of this. If it IS the video card, do you have any suggestions on a cheap card I could replace it with(I have a better computer now, but the Mac is still pretty powerful and a backup computer would be nice to have).

Thanks.

Hey lordkat, nash, and mark
I have an Intel(R) HD graphics card and i really want to change it because well you know its not very good but i really want a card with dual monitor support, but with VGA input. oh and cheap like in the 70 buck range? i doubt there is such a price for what i want.
thanks for reading

From,
John

It seems Journeyman0186 is in the same boat as me. This is a rather recent problem. Usually for my desktop computer, I use the small option so I can see the stream and chat at the same time. The small option is now gone for me, and most of the chat extends beyond the window... as you could imagine, this is a bit of a problem... Perhaps misaligned browser compatibilities?
*Update* Yes, it must be something of a browser incompatibility because I was using IE, as I usually do (I know, I know), and I tried using safari - I have yet to try firefox or chrome at all - and the irc chat is appropriately placed on the page. In regards to my use of IE, it's just because I'm comfortable with it, and I'm not like some certain fazeeks out there who click on anything. Oh, and zoom out seems to do the trick in the "small option" issue.
*later update* Well, I only just discovered that you can use compatibility mode... oh, and what Truffala says below. Thanks. Love the show.

Hey Jason and Nash,

Always love the show. Not sure if this is going beyond or not but wanted advise about video cards.

I have two cards installed and a third one available (still in box) of ATI HD 4650 1GB cards. Right now I do not have them in crossfire due to having four monitors. This is because crossfire disables the second card's outputs. I was wondering if I put two in crossfire and a third card not crossfired on to support the other two monitors would I be gaining performance going crossfire, will it be neutral or would it be detrimental?

Thanks in advance,

Bell

Edit: I have three 16x PCIe slots on the MB as well as a few 1x so that is not an issue. No other cards except for TV tuner (in a 1x slot) Power isn't either as I have a 1050W PS with 80 plus Silver eff. Heat isn't too bad either.

Hi LK Nash and Mark,

I have a 5 computer set up that all connect to the internet using a Linksys router. The computers do not share files with each other and I don't have any sort of network created, I have my main machine, a net book a media box, my father scams my internet wirelessly from his apartment down the hall and, the machine that causes worries, an old computer that I use to get to the less savory parts of the internet. The Less savory computer is constantly getting viruses and I'm ok with that since I know where I'm going and the risks associated. What I am wondering, is there a significant risk of the other computers getting infected since they all get the internet from the same router? If so how can I best insulate the good computers? They all have up to date virus scanners and I run malware bytes regularly.

Thanks

Here's something I've been running into for a while now. Being a computer gamer, I use Steam quite often. Lately, I've come across a few games that would handle a little better with a gamepad of some sort. Since I like the 360 controller and have a few extra lying around, I decided that would be a good option. The problem I'm running into is that Windows cannot seem to install the drivers for them. This striies me as odd since I have heard that they connect easily.

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit. I have tried multiple controllers (wired, wireless with adapter and through plug-n-play cables) and I still cannot get them to connect. I went to Microsoft and downloaded and installed the drivers by hand with no problems, but the controllers still will not be recognized. From all of my Googling, my problem seems common, but the solutions haven't helped much yet and thought you guys might have another option to try.

Thanks and keep up the great and helpful work with the show!

The links are just missing from the page.
http://live.lordkat.com/small.php
http://live.lordkat.com/huge.php
Those url's still work for me (Firefox) if for some reason they dont work for you, you could always just zoom out of the page a bit, Ctrl+-/scroll wheel (I think, been a long time since I used IE)

Hey Lord KaT and Nash. I got Demigod, a RTS game, for my computer and when I play the game it lags, so I uninstalled it and got rid of it, but I getting the the problem with other games like The Spirit of Wandering: The Legend, a game from Big Fish Games, which is unplayable due to lag. I have a Dell Inspiron desktop I got it 2-3 years and it runs on windows vista and I've added nothing to the computer. I believe the problem is the graphics card but I am unsure this true because it doesn't happen with any other games on my computer. What do you recommend that I do.

Hey LordKat, Nash and Mark! I'm a big fan of your show and I really appreciate how you bring the arcane art of troubleshooting network problems to the masses.

I have a 2Wire 2701HGV-E ADSL modem/wireless router that gave me piles of problems initially but seems to have sorted itself out and generally works fine now with the occasional hiccup. But due to the geometry of my home, I cannot place the router in a position where I can get a good signal with my laptop from my room yet still have it connected by ethernet to my desktop which is in the living room. (My mother, bless her heart, hates unsightly cables, and being in Singapore, wall to wall carpets aren't very common)

I look in envy at my university's Cisco wireless access points and I want to get something that can give me something like that level of signal strength. So I pulled up my local computer shop's price list and I'm overwhelmed by the number of choices available.
(picture of said choices below, prices in Singapore Dollars ~ 0.8x USD)
http://picturehoster.info/images/82076958771945193860.gif

What exactly am I looking for? Will my current ADSL gateway function just as a modem or must I buy a new one? If not, what must I do to get it to work like that? Finally, I know you said that enterprise routers will need to be set up just right, will I face that kind of problem with the more expensive Cisco options or are the ones being offered consumer level hardware?

Thanks in advance and sorry for being so verbose.
-dacis2 (pronounced day-sis)

EDIT: From your last show I heard someone with a similar problem, and I am unhappy to report that drilling to lay the CAT5 cable would be a major job (I live in an apartment) and that my router won't work with a cantenna (no external antenna output)

*** 9/27 show ended here. ***

Dear LordKat, Nash, and Maluku,
I know that the proper procedure is to ask the question via text, but it would be faster to show you via video rather than tell you. My question is in the video in this post, along with the details you need to know.

Hey u answered a question of mine a couple of weeks ago about my two computers and I have tried what u suggested

1) with my sony vaio I scanned for viruses and other stuff and found nothing as well as changed the dns but still no luck. To clarify Skype is the only program that connects. I can't play games (it's not my steam computer so I don't know about steam) and I tried using maptool and it won't connect either. What else do you suggest I try?

2) my netvista's second hard drive looks like it's on a daisy chain and it's set to slaver but it still doesnt see it. Why does it not work still ?

On a similar note I am concerned about something with my netvista. Whenever it boots up from a power down (not when I restart it) it starts acting like a car that doesn't start. What I mean is it will start then make a beep noise and stop . After a minute or so of this it stops that and boots up normally. What is causing this?

EDIT: my second drive ( not the main one) is what's causing this. Also it was daisy chained up to the DVD drive not my main. I tried giving it it's own IDE port still no luck

EDIT: I've determined that the hard drive has failed and there is no hope from recovering it unless u guys think otherwise