Computer Problem Thread

[vile mk4]

I have this USB Flash Drive, and  forgot to unmount it before removing it. Now, i can't see any of the files, but i know that they are still there since i have the same ammount of  free space than before the accident. How can i recover my files ?

[Shiki Tohno]

You might want to run a chkdsk -f on the drive. After that, you'll need to set Win Explorer to view both hidden and protected system files, and most of your files will be there... Except with the wrong extensions. You'll have to figure out most of the files by size. Had that happen to me once.

[Bolt Crank]

does anyone know why my computer crashed a while ago? ;__; It was working on something, and suddenly when i clicked on a link to one of the boards on RPM, it froze up, and I couldnt do anything, I could move the mouse, but when I clicked, nothing happened... it wouldnt do anything. so I freaked out and turned the computer off from the power strip. but when I turned it back on, it wouldnt reads the hard drive and wouldnt recognize it as such.
we tried everything, including all powerfull repair programs that could kill a car if used wrong... yet NOTHING. so we eentually tried to open the hard drive, as we had nothing to lose anyway, since we couldnt repair it. but there wasnt anything wrong with the inside of the HD. to this day we dont know what happened... i think it sbecause of forcefully shutting it off while frozen, but thats just me maybe...

Posted on: November 20, 2008, 10:52:44 PMalso, does anyone know how I can obtain XP for a laptop if I ever get one? My math teacher said you can simply tell microsoft that you dont like vista you hate it, and that if you ask to be switched, theyl stitch you to XP, but at the cost that there isnt any support for it.
T/F?

[Shiki Tohno]

does anyone know why my computer crashed a while ago? ;__; It was working on something, and suddenly when i clicked on a link to one of the boards on RPM, it froze up, and I couldnt do anything, I could move the mouse, but when I clicked, nothing happened... it wouldnt do anything. so I freaked out and turned the computer off from the power strip. but when I turned it back on, it wouldnt reads the hard drive and wouldnt recognize it as such.
we tried everything, including all powerfull repair programs that could kill a car if used wrong... yet NOTHING. so we eentually tried to open the hard drive, as we had nothing to lose anyway, since we couldnt repair it. but there wasnt anything wrong with the inside of the HD. to this day we dont know what happened... i think it sbecause of forcefully shutting it off while frozen, but thats just me maybe...

Your disc temporarily locked up, and you shutting it down when it was locked up was the coup de grace in killing it. Sometimes XP DOES lock up when doing stuff (happens to me when I'm watching video files on MPC) but it unlocks by itself a few seconds after. Next time, leave it alone for the next couple of minutes; if by then it hasn't unlocked itself, then try shutting it down, but only leave that as a very last resort. And don't unplug/turn off the power strip, you blithering idiot, you could have overloaded any of the other components in the machine. Press and hold the power button for a few seconds, and the machine will automatically turn off by itself.

also, does anyone know how I can obtain XP for a laptop if I ever get one? My math teacher said you can simply tell microsoft that you dont like vista you hate it, and that if you ask to be switched, theyl stitch you to XP, but at the cost that there isnt any support for it.
T/F?

Wrong. ANY installation of XP works on ANY laptop (proof: myself), you just need to find the drivers for the devices in the laptop by yourself. And no, it doesn't work that way. When you buy a laptop, you can tell the OEM (the people who sell you the machine) you'd like a downgrade; you'll have to pay a bit extra for it, but they'll remove Vista and install XP (usually either Home or Media Center). And there IS official support for XP still, just not to the same extent as there was about three or four years ago.

[Bolt Crank]

I DID try the power button, I held it for the longest time and still nothing, not even CTR + ALT + Delete worked. but that computer was a found computer anyway. my dad works in the city, in the rockefeller center are, and the big companies throw out their old PC's often. he brings em home and they worked just fine (once you put a new HD in...) so it was a found computer, with a new monitor, and a used, yrt still new HD. an 80 gig HD given to me by my neighbor... he works in verizon, and he said he had an HD that he used for something but didnt need anymore. that was it.

[Shiki Tohno]

In any case, regarding your XP question, ANY XP will work on ANY laptop. You just need to look for the hardware drivers of each integrated device yourself. Usually, if it's an original laptop, you can search for the drivers at the manufacturer's website. Take me, for example: my Aspire 5670 came with a 120GB HDD, which I had to replace. Since I had no way of getting the original stuff for the hardware, I just installed a pirated version of XP Pro SP2 I had laying around, and as soon as I did, I used Microsoft's app to change the serial number to the legit one that came with the machine, and just headed to Acer's website to get the drivers for all the stuff that came on the laptop (video card drivers, webcam drivers, sound drivers, multicard reader drivers, infrared drivers, bluetooth drivers, et al).

[Bolt Crank]

My only XP question was how to obtain XP for a laptop when I buy it, since I dont like nor want Vista...

[Shiki Tohno]

You buy it just about anywhere. Any store outlets should still have some original XP licenses to sell, either Pro or Media Center. Or you can hop by Amazon or NewEgg and try over there.

[Gaia]

I can't seem to get the mic working on my PC, can someone help solve this? (it has a transformers case, imo)

[Jericho]

OK, DZ you mentioned in another thread that there was a 64bit Edition of XP Media Center Edition and I went searching for it and didn't find much. What I'm wondering is whether or not this is a Microsoft only retail item, or if I'm just not searching for it right.

Also, in your opinion,what are the benefits to having Vista Ultimate over XP Media Center Edition if any?

[Rockmon]

Ok so I want to have a collection of Sharingan avatars but I can't get the damn rotate script to work, so could someone who's using it please write a guide with screenshots?

[Sky Child]

How do I disable viewing PNGs with Quicktime in IE?

[Shiki Tohno]

Go to Quicktime's control panel, and disable the association of PNG files with it. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I don't really remember how you get to the CP, not having used QT in a LOOOOOOOONG, LOOOOOOOOOOONG time.

[Bolt Crank]

are we experiencing problems on the site again or is it just me?

[Rockmon]

site wide problems but it's gone away for now.

[HyperSonicEXE]

are we experiencing problems on the site again or is it just me?

I dunno, you tel

[Bolt Crank]

Im worried.

[Karai]

1. I have a USB gamepad. It works good (using XP's default driver), but after an hour or so, it stops working, and disappears from the list of connected devices. It will work again after unplugging it, rebooting PC (sometimes it's not necessary, though), and plugging it again. Is there anything I can do to play for more than hour?

2. Can anybody recommend me a good RSS Reader? I want something that will minimize to system tray, clear it's cache every few days, and the most important thing: will eat as little RAM as possible. I don't need any bling-bling features, just something simple and small.

[Shiki Tohno]

With it connected, try heading to the Device Manager applet and uninstalling the gamepad, then unplug and plug again so it gets installed again, and see if the problem gets solved that way. If not, you'll have to search for specific replacement drivers.

As for the RSS question, I wouldn't know, I use a RSS ticker on my Firefox.

[Karai]

*takes notes* I'll try that. I hope it'll work T_T

Posted on: 23 December 2008, 19:10:24Update (sort of): After 3 hours my pad disappeared, and replugging it didn't help ("unknown device").
After further research (I don't really want to buy another pad >.>) I found that it seems to be a XP bugs + motherboard (DFI AK75-EC; VIA KT133A chipset) bugs combo, and it's quite a common problem. Some say that messing with motherboard and chipset driver can help, I'll try that tomorrow.
There's also that KB822603 update for Windows, but it doesn't want to work on SP2 :C

[Bolt Crank]

How good is Tangent?

Posted on: December 23, 2008, 08:08:42 PMHey, yknow what Happened to me one time... I was deleting stuff from my Recycle bin, and since there was so much chit there, when I clicked to delete everything, it froze up a bit. so Me, in all my impatientness, clicked it like crazy, saying DAMMNIT WORK!
and suddenly it unfroze, and I heard the sound of a whole bunch of clicks, and everything was deleted, but then a message popped up like the ones which ask you if your sure you want to delete blah blah, but this is what it said.

-are you sure you want to delete "windows"?-
and I shat bricks for a second, and clamly clicked "no" I mean, normally when you empty the bin, the "clear out bin" button fades out to grey.
I was freaked out by it for a bit. was like, hoshit, I opened a wormhole. .

[Saber]

Maybe I'm just going insane, but is it possible that a graphic card can be TOO good for a video and thus make the graphical output of a video look worse? I've been watching a few videos and fansubs on my new notebook and the videos look a lot worse than on my usual home computer despite the notebook having far more horsepower and a more powerful graphic card. Especially when it comes to darker colors, the images tend to bug up, creating moving squares and stuff. I checked my graphic card driver and it's up to date and also tested some other players (though Media Player Classic works just fine on my old computer), but no changes so far. It's pissing me off. The only other thing I could think of is that I missed to install some codec or whatever to make it look good again, but last I checked, CCCP was just about anything you needed for good video quality. Any suggestions on what the hell is wrong? I'll also provide a screenshot in order to show what I'm talking about.

(click to show/hide)

See all this squared stuff on the monitor/window and in the right corner? This crap didn't show up on my regular computer.

[Shiki Tohno]

It's probably due to how your video configuration is set, and how your codecs are handling the video. Make sure your color quality is set to 32bits and that your codecs are all up to date and assigned correctly.

[Saber]

Well, in that case I have no idea what's wrong. Color is set to 32bits, the options in Media Player Classic are both the same, as are the settings in CCCP. I don't know how or where to change stuff in order to get a clean picture again.

I might also add that even videos on YouTube, in High Quality or HD even, look worse on this notebook.

[Gaia]

Well, in that case I have no idea what's wrong. Color is set to 32bits, the options in Media Player Classic are both the same, as are the settings in CCCP. I don't know how or where to change stuff in order to get a clean picture again.

I might also add that even videos on YouTube, in High Quality or HD even, look worse on this notebook.

It could be just the compatability with the graphics card and the notebook. Probably the best solution is to lower or raise the brightness or contrast.