Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with computer and resolved

How can I stop my PC from rattling like Marley?

headspace — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:27:47 -0800

My PC is rattling. It stops when I hit it. This is not a long-term solution. It starts whining/rattling when I boot it in the morning. I thump it, and it stops. It's a tower case, with the MOBO on the right side, and the drives arrayed down the front. (1 IDE hard drive, 1 SATA hard drive, 1 DVD burner, 1 Lightscribe DVD burner, 1 3 1/2 floppy drive.)

The sound seems to be coming from the top of the case, toward the middle- where there shouldn't be anything except motherboard.

Until today, it only made this sound on boot up. Now it's doing it intermittently as I work. The fans are in working order and there are no cords getting thumped by fan blades.

If the hard drives were going bad, would they stop whining if I thumped the case? Have I missed a loose screw somewhere? What other parts could be making this sound?

(I have backed everything up. I cannot afford a Mac.)

What are these plastic rails on my hard drive called?

billybunny — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:43:26 -0800

What are these rails which snap into the side of a hard drive and allow it to slide into a bay called? And also, where can I get some more? My computer's case has absolutely no identifying information, and hell if I can remember who the manufacturer was 5 years after I bought the thing. I tried going into a computer store to get some more, but I couldn't even figure out what I was trying to buy, let alone if they'd have any of them!

The pope is angered by your attack on...

zvs — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:03:03 -0800

Name that game: You're a feudal lord trying to conquer neighboring territories on a sort of RISK-style board. Make the wrong move and you'll enrage the pope. I played this around 1994 and Google is apparently completely unable to help. If you can name that title, I'll be your best friend forever.

Crash Course

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:47:54 -0800

PC crash. How to progress from here? It's a two year-old HP Pavilion m8327c running Vista. Had some FireFox crashes in the last few days. Today the display started flickering, the whites turning to vertical yellow lines, pixelated colors, etc. Ran System Restore and got up again for a while, then display started disintegrating again. Started in safe mode, but things seemed to get worse. Eventually even System Restore didn't work. Have run HijackThis and Adaware regularly, and NOD32 is up to date. Never had problems with viruses. Computer is very dusty; I plan to blow it out tomorrow. Unplugged now, and I'm working from my old computer.

What is the most likely cause? What is the best way to proceed from here? My son has a pretty rad computer we can use to transfer files, etc. TIA.

Help me find the manual for my bike computer.

Barry B. Palindromer — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:21:04 -0800

What bike computer is this? I recently purchased a bike at a garage sale. I'm really happy with the bike; the change from my clunker of a mountain bike to this sleek road bike makes a ton of difference in my commute. It came with a bike computer, and I can't figure out how to change from metric to imperial, or how to make sure the wheel measurements are correct. So I'd like to find out what make and model it is, hopefully that will help me find a manual somewhere.

Does my hard drive have permanent issues?

R a c h e l — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:05:00 -0800

Can I remove a partition and use my hard disk as normal? Rather long explanation... So, my original problem would be best explained by this older question I asked.

Basically, my vista partition stopped booting one day, with a couple error messages when I attempted startup recovery, the most significant (I think) being "system volume on disk is corrupt". Does this mean there is a part of my hard drive that has been messed up? I've never been too gentle with my laptop, and I have dropped it 3-4ish feet onto carpet more than once (yes, I know how terrible that it. I'm completely aware).

I'm determined to use this until it refuses to turn on, though. I mean, I also cracked the screen and am losing real estate all over at a fairly constant rate. An external monitor helps with that, though. At any rate, I'd like to install a copy of windows 7 that I just bought (I've been using the beta, which I've had since March, and likes to tell me it's counterfeit frequently. This was installed on a different partition from Vista, and has worked fine since Vista stopped.)

So, in installing the copy of Windows 7, I would like to give it a bit more room than the current Windows 7 partition of 20gb. Vista has 200gb, and everything I need on there has been backed up. I know fairly well how to erase the vista partition, grow the Windows 7 partition, etc.

My question is, will I run into problems because of whatever caused the Vista failure? Is there a bad sector or something that will give me grief? Is there some sort of formatting I can do before installing windows 7 to sort of start over with the disk? (There is absolutely nothing on this computer that is not backed up that I need.)

I'm sorry for the long explanation, with probably plenty of extraneous information. Thanks very much for your help!

Help me find this computer game! It has tubes and spheres!

tzikeh — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:18:35 -0800

I can't remember the name of the game, or where I found it, or whether it's for a computer or a PDA/smartphone. So, with nothing to google, I turn to you.... The game has a square board containing spheres of different colors, which appear in ways I can't remember (either at specific intervals, or if the player does something, or...). If you can get x number of spheres of the same color in a row, you can "shoot" them into one of the steam pipes at the end of each row or column. The more any given steam pipe is used, the "hotter" it gets, and the more points you earn for re-using that steam pipe.

This is making me nuts! Big thank-yous to anyone who can find it for me.

Remotely buying a computer in the UK from Canada

krunk — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:40:49 -0800

My parents (in Canada) are trying to buy a PC for their family in the UK, but they're having trouble finding a store that will take their money. Apparently they won't accept foreign credit cards, or even money orders. He's tried Dell, PC World, Curry's, and a few others. Any ideas?

What's the best way to buy and store ebooks on a budget?

patheral — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:28:03 -0800

I'm drastically downsizing and cannot take my beloved books with me. I think the best solution for my new living arrangement would be to find a way to buy and store ebooks. But how and with what? I love to read. Reading is the way I de-stress and unwind. I can't live without reading. I also move a lot and right now the town I live in has a dismal library with no selection. I used to have a room full of books and now it's a bookcase full of books, but even that is too many. I have to go down to a shelf full by next January - if that - and those would be the ones with sentimental value.

As I see it, I can either download books to my computer and read them from here, and risk more migraines. Or I can find the better ebook reader (for example a Kindle or a Nook). Or I can get a smartphone like an iPhone or a blackberry - which I understand have applications for ebooks.

But my budget is tight, and I'm not very savvy about these things. I've been all over Google and compared the ebook readers and I've looked at some friends' smartphones, but I just don't know what would be the better choice. I don't know if I can get the books I want here on my computer, or if I have to have an ebook reader to download them. I think a smartphone might be overkill, but maybe not since some of them have other applications that might be useful. But I don't want to be tied into a contract with a smartphone if it's not the best way.

Anyway, any suggestions would be great.

Help with buying a new mid-range windows gaming PC?

cortex — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:37:45 -0800

I'm looking at purchasing a new PC for gaming, wanting to spend between $1000 and $1500 total, would prefer not to put it together myself, and am waaaay out of the loop on hardware at this point, particularly graphic cards. I've been pricing out desktop builds from some of the major manufacturers this morning and I'm realizing that while I'm comfortable making some basic price/performance calls as far as CPU and memory, I'm completely out of touch with the GPU market and need some guidance.

I'd like to be able to play current releases without flinching, at crisp resolutions. I'll be happy with non-distracting performance: 30fps is great, 60fps is not something I'm going to care about so much.

I'd rather just buy a box from someone and have done with it than do much work myself inside the case, but as far as buying my own GPU to install in an otherwise standard box that's certainly not outside my comfort zone.

Looking at Dell's builds for both their normal beefy desktop line and their Alienware stuff, it seems like a lot of the latter is Ooh, Shiny packaging. I don't need a pretty box. But options for GPUs are pretty slim on non-gamer boxes, which has me wondering if going in that direction for a reasonably bullshit-free desktop build and then slotting in my own card is the smarter move.

Any specific advice on targeting a good-enough-for-current-games (biggies on my list include Dragon Age now, Mass Effect 2 and Diablo 3 when they drop, for example) GPU on the saner side of the price/performance break? Any particular good deals/providers for a solid out-of-the-box system in my price range?

Do I 'need' a gaming laptop to play MMOs?

Kurichina — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:37:12 -0800

Do I 'need' a gaming laptop to play MMOs? Computer hardware knowledgable people: what sort of system do you use for determining your 'needs' for a computer? My HP lappy conked out last week (very likely a motherboard failure, I'm told) and I'm in the market for a new one. It wasn't an ideal time financially for this to happen, so I don't want to spend anymore money than I have to. However, I also want this next laptop to last 4-5 years if possible, or, at the very least, 3.

I'm not a huge gamer, but I started playing a fair amount of WoW earlier this year and it's not unreasonable to think I may branch out into a few other MMOs. On my old, mid-range HP, WoW had many errors (not able to process the zone files and crashing) and was generally frustrating. Other than the games, my needs are fairly basic: a small amount of graphic design, word processing/spreadsheets, listen to music and watch DVDs/blu-rays. Is it worthwhile to splash out on a newer, more powerful processor *(quad core or I7, for e.g.) and some extra memory or will this be money wasted due to not using this power? Is there an objective (i.e. not trying to sell me something) site out there that will determine my hardware needs?

I've seen this but that question didn't discuss the needs of MMOs, and I'm not interested in the PC vs Mac side of things. (For reasons of cost and wanting to keep using the same software I already own, some of it purchased at "educational" prices for which I no longer qualify, I'm sticking with a PC.)

Wireless possible, or no?

BlahLaLa — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:37:12 -0800

Did the Apple salesperson do me wrong? I bought an AirPort Express to go wireless with my Mac Mini but now I think I got screwed. Okay, it's embarrassing to admit this on Metafilter, where almost everyone seems to be very computer savvy, but I DON'T KNOW ABOUT COMPUTERS. I use 'em, but I don't know how they work.

I have an older Mac Mini. I've had it for two years, but it was used by someone else previously and I don't know precisely how old it is. I want to set up a wireless network in my home, and I called the Apple Store to see if that would be possible with my model. The phone rep talked me through looking at my computer. I have a new-enough OS. I do not have an AirPort card. I do have firewire. She said I can connect through firewire.

But the AirPort Express arrived, and when I looked at the documentation, it says I must have the AirPort card installed.

So...is that true about this alleged firewire? Can I connect wirelessly, or am I out of luck? If not, can I keep my Mac Mini wired to the modem, and hook up the AirPort Express so my husband can use his laptop elsewhere in the house?

If I need to return this thing: Have you had experience with the Apple Store? Are they going to easily accept the explanation that I only bought this because the salesperson said it would work with my computer?

Please speak to me as if I am your mentally challenged great aunt. I really need it step by step, spelled out.

Stupid mousey thing no work!

IAmBroom — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:02:46 -0800

Trackpad suddenly stopped working - any solutions? Details:
Dual-boot: WinXP, v5.1, SP3. Ubuntu 8.10.
Acer Aspire 4730Z, out of warranty.
Trackpad stopped working in both operating systems. When this happened before, I plugged in a USB mouse, and when I removed it, the trackpad worked again. Now it's dead, as are the two left-/right-click buttons.

The curious part is that all of the trackpad - buttons and pad itself - stopped working. That doesn't grok. Can't be a driver issue, since it's across two OS's. Yeah, I'm probably screwed, but if anyone has a clue...

Why does my laptop think I'm pushing ctrl?

Pope Guilty — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:50:34 -0800

My Inspiron 1545 thinks I'm pressing ctrl and I don't know why. I picked up a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop awhile back, and the only problem I've had with it is that it frequently activates the ctrl key regardless of whether or not I'm actually pressing it- or even have my hands on the keyboard! Sometimes this is just annoying, like randomly crouching in an FPS or tab-targeting grabbing friends instead of enemies in WoW, but if I type a "w" while it thinks I'm pressing ctrl, I lose the Firefox tab I was working in! If I hit tab in Firefox, I frequently go to the next tab instead of the next field. Perhaps most bafflingly, it is only ctrl that this happens with; it never randomly types another character, nor does it ever wrongly activate shift or alt or any other key.

So far, I've talked to Dell about it; they sent me a replacement keyboard, but this did not resolve the problem. Googling indicates that many people are having this problem, but nobody seems to have any solutions (besides one suggestion, bizarrely, to reduce trackpad sensitivity, which did nothing).

Anyone out there know what's going on or have any ideas?

Skip the Black Friday Madness?

dyno04 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:51:20 -0800

I am in need of a new desktop computer. I am wondering if I should wait until Black Friday and brave the crowds or take advantage of some of the Windows 7 deals this week. I live in the Twin Cities, MN metro area if that makes a difference.

Help me understand homogenous coordinates

tickingclock — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:37:11 -0800

Help me understand homogenous coordinates! I encountered homogenous coordinates in computer graphics, where I understand that they let us translate vertices. But this is a rather shallow level of understanding, and I don't really get why, for instance, the position of the light source in OpenGL is necessarily specified with (x, y, z, w). Is it kind of like how there is an infinite number of points that can correspond to a single point on a 2D image at (x, y), but by specifying a third dimension, we can disambiguate between the different points?

I've tried reading Googling and I've tried reading Wikipedia -- but to no avail. I'm really hoping that somebody in the hive mind can explain it at a level that I can understand, and also why homogenous coordinates are important on a more broad level. Thanks!

Missing video: 3rd person live vide

monocultured — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:58:05 -0800

A year or two back there was an online video (Boingboing tv?) showing an interview with a young artist (British?) who had mounted a camera behind and above his back, which fed the live video to goggles he wore. He'd also dressed in a getup that would make him look like a game character, spiky hair and such. "Live 3rd person perspective" in other words. Half an hour of googling and I can't find the darn video or any info relating to the artist. I think part of the video was shot in Japan, where he staggered around and posed in front of people, á la WoW taunting.

Hard drive trouble?

R a c h e l — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:59:55 -0800

Hard drive(I think) corrupted - I'm drowning in information. Help? I'm sure this has been addressed elsewhere but since there are so many different problems that happen with computers/hard drives/etc, I'm having a lot of trouble differentiating.

Me: HP Laptop, running Vista and an expired beta of windows 7 on different partitions. Also have a recovery partition installed by HP but that's just the OS and stuff, not my stuff. I almost always use(d) Vista, and all my files are accessible from there.

Problem: Vista only starts up partway,then gets stuck with a blank screen (after the "Windows loading" screen). I eventually power it down, turn it on, and the computer suggests I try startup recovery, which fails.

Oh: a note: my dad may have been the last one to turn on my computer before this happens, and he said it said something about installing an update (I think he said a service pack, but there hasn't been a new one recently - why would this be installing now? I usually just let the automatic updaters work their mojo, don't pay too much attention to it, so I can't provide more detail, sorry)

In the 'details' section, the two tests that startup recovery said failed were Unknown bugcheck: Bugcheck 50 (with some parameters listed - I can provide those if it's helpful) and then it said repair action: system files integrity and repair. Result: failed. Error code: Ox2

Then, the other "root cause found" by startup repair was "System volume on disk is corrupt. Repair action: File system repair (chkdsk) Result: completed successfully Error code: OxO

It tells me that startup repair failed. If I power it down and start again, the same thing happens.

Windows 7 works fine, if that's relevant.

So, my question is multifold(Is that a word?): Can this be repaired? Can I recover my pictures etc on my harddrive (yes, I know I should have backed them up, was actually external harddrive shopping the day that this happened)? I have another, legal, copy of Vista. Can I install that(after recovering my data)? About how much will data recovery cost?

Thanks so much, this is my first Ask MeFi question so I'm a little nervous. Do let me know if I did anything wrong!

Did dude steal a Dell?

ChurchHatesTucker — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:16:05 -0800

Is this computer hot? A friend of mine found a good deal (person to person) for a Dell Windows Vista laptop. He's wondering if the deal is good because the computer is hot. Is there any easy way to get a fair idea? (He's a newbie, I'm a Mac.)

Global replace all in Word using the clipboard?

kingjoeshmoe — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:38:04 -0800

How can I (quickly) globally replace text in word with a footnote (or anything from my clipboard)? I have a document that is hundreds of pages long, and has certain phrases that are made repeatedly, and I need to make edits to those repeated phrases. In most cases, this is not a problem. I can get pretty far just by using "Replace All", typing the phrase I need to change in the first box, and the new text in the bottom.

But I'm running into problems when I get phrases with footnotes in them. I can find phrases with footnotes just fine using ^f, but you can't replace that way. The best solution I've got so far is to type a unique phrase in the replace window (like qqqq), and then manually search for each instance of the phrase and replace with a footnote copied from my clipboard. But this means I need to do this search about 80 times each time it comes up. Is there some way to do a global search and replace, where the replace uses whatever is in my clipboard?

Help me connect Mac-at-home to Windows-at-work?

OlivesAndTurkishCoffee — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:40:00 -0800

What could happen to my mac if I connect remotely to my windows computer at work. Is there a viciously secure way of doing this? I need to connect my home mac to my office's windows computer remotely. So far, this has stumped the tech guy so I've been using a small windows netbook and connecting via vpn. But opening files on the company network takes forever and we need a better solution.

He is currently working on a solution that allows me to connect to the small business server using my mac via the windows Remote Desktop Connection Client 1.0.3 for Mac.

This worries me because I don't want windows stuff touching my mac! But my worry is based on mere suspicious distrust of windows rather than any actual knowledge of how these things work.

Those of you who do know about these things: Will using this client application make my mac vulnerable to windows risks; and, if so, is there a better more secure solution? (or a better solution with the netbook?)

Wireless network connection problem

Kat Allison — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:15:11 -0800

ARGH. Wireless connectivity problem. Laptop tells me I am connected with excellent signal strength, and yet I'm not able to load any webpages. So, I am in the process of moving. I got internet service connected at the new place, and my laptop (running Windows XP) connects to the internet with no problem when hooked up via Ethernet. So then I unhooked the wireless modem from my old place (where it had been working just fine with my laptop), and hooked it up at the new place.

My wireless network shows up in the list of available networks on my laptop; when I try to connect to it, I get the message that it is connected and signal strength is excellent. But -- it's not actually accessing the internet. I *can* connect with a neighbor's unsecured wireless network, but not with mine, even though every screen that relates to the wireless connection status tells me I'm connected.

Stuff I have tried with no effect:
--Rebooting.
--Checking all hardware connections.
--Disabling Windows firewall.
--Repairing the connection.

In "Network Connection Details" it says:
--Address Type: Assigned by DHCP
--IP Address: 192.168.1.100
--Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
--Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
--DHCP Server: 192.168.1.1
--Lease obtained: 10/8/2009 3:06:37 PM
--Lease expires: 10/9/2009 3:06:37 PM
--DNS Servers: 68.87.69.146
68.87.85.98
68.87.78.130

I have WPA security on the network, but the password or key don't seem to be presenting any problems.

It would probably help if I had a better grasp of how wireless networks work. But, based on this -- any ideas? Anything I could try?

Bill Gates I ain't...

malibustacey9999 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:12:26 -0800

The best way to go from knowing how to put a computer together out of the box but nothing else, to understanding how the 'innards' work? Apologies if this question has already been asked and answered. I searched, but I couldn't find anything that addressed my angle.

So, I can connect up the bits out of the box, and some extra bits you add later. I'm the one my friends/family call when they update and don't know how to connect it all up, but my hardware skills stop there. I can troubleshoot minor stuff, but mostly software based, I think. I had a crash course in being hacked a few months ago and, with the help of AskMe, minimised the damage.

I have learned a tiny little bit about software, programs, and whatnot, but open the tower (?), and I have no clue what's in there, what it does, and how to work with it.

I bought myself a new desktop PC, and now the old dead one is sitting on the floor behind me, tormenting me with the memories of all the music, pictures and documents that I didn't think were worth backing up. (I know. Silly me.)

There's nothing on it that I can't live without, but I'm probably capable of getting it working again, or extracting the information it contains, if I set my mind to learning how. And the more I think about it, the more I want to do it. I don't have any learned friends/acquaintances I can call on for help, so books and the internet must be my teachers, I guess. I've surfed various DIY sites, but they seem to vary in detail and assumption of, um, base knowledge.

So what would you suggest as a good resource for an enthusiastic learner? Computer Hardware For Dummies or similar? Have you taught yourself, or have your kids self-educated about hardware? What worked for you/them? What didn't?

Possibly relevant: I'm a handy girl, I have toolboxes I use regularly. I can fix a noisy toilet, a leaking tap, change fuses, service cars, so using a screwdriver or stripping wires won't be part of my learning curve. And I have the old PC just sitting there waiting for me to pull it to bits, but I'm not confident to begin until I have a source of guidance I can trust.

(Is it cheating if I also ask where I can find a list of MeFi acronyms and explanations, because I can't sleep until I know for sure that YMMV doesn't stand for You May Morph Violently?)

How can I get my laptop to work with a wired connection?

biochemist — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:16:56 -0800

Follow up to this question. We tried the D-link, but it doesn't seem to be working with the laptop. The desktop computer connects fine. The laptop also doesn't recognize the desktop for file sharing. We've tried all sorts of things with network connections, to no avail. I'm not sure what the problem could be/what we need to do. It works fine if the cable is running straight from the router to the computer, but when we connect the switch the laptop won't recognize the connection. They're both connected using ethernet cables.

Apple Macs: Is it possible to boot my mac mini remotely?

telsa — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:54:46 -0800

Apple Macs: Is it possible to boot my mac mini remotely? I use my mac mini as a media center displayed through a 46" tv along with apple's bluetooth keyboard and a USB mouse. The setup itself sits nicely inside a glass shelf; however, everytime I'd like to turn it on, I have to physically get up and press the little button in the back of the mac mini.

I use this quite often as I'm living abroad and can watch US television through slingbox. Is it possible to remotely boot my mac mini through the keyboard or some kind of remote control?