What wears out in an HDD? Is it only the tone arm that breaks? or can the bearings the platter rides on break??? Good watches use jewels, rubies, as bearings; and cheap watches use metal. What do hard drives use? I googled but couldn't find much about this. Does the spindle really ride on...

For a friend with Win7. IIRC in Vista and 7, the default for a hard drive turning off was never. Never? Even for people who leave their computer on 24/7? Doesn't it extend the life of the harddrive to turn it off when not in use? Or is it only the tone arm that breaks and the bearings...

Ok. This friend of mine has a "Gforce 2" in his comp but doesn't know what model it is. The place where he bought it from installed a driver for it but didn't give him the driver on a CD. The receipt he has doesn't show what kind of vid card he has. To make matters worse, the shop closed after a...

Any utility to tell me if hyper-threading or dual channel DDR memory is working or not? Thanks.

I bought a VGA to S-Video Adapter to enable me to connect my laptop's VGA output to a Projector via the S-Video input on the projector. (The projector has only the S-video input.) The adapter is a 'y' type device with a S-Video jack and a composite (RCA) jack. It doesn't work. I examined the...

What USB devices should work through a passive hub? My old laptop had 3 USB ports but I needed at least 4. I assumed that it was better to copy files to a flashdrive without putting a hub in the middle. Same for my USB speakers. OTOH, my mouse and keyboard xmit so little that I figured they...

Hi have a Barton 2500 @ 10.5x200fsb and GF Ti4400 wanna get new card do i get Radeon 9800 or 9800 Pro or GF 9000 Ideas?

Hello all, What type of TV out does the Abit Sulro Geforce 4 Ti 4200 have? Its not SVHS as I have tried that cable but something that looks very similar. Says its a composite on Abite website. What does that mean? Any ideas how I'd connect it to a TV? What cable would I need? Thanks.

what type of screw is this? http://www.andicrook.demon.co.uk/type.jpg its about 5mm in diameter. where can I get a tool to undo it? regards

I have a Compaq Presario model 7110US. How do I find out what kind of RAM is in it? I want to add more RAM to my system. Thanks. ----- Kim/Dreamspinner3 Visit My Homepage: http://members.tripod.com/dreamspinner3/

Hi I have to upgrade the memory on a PC fitted with a motherboard marked "BN 730 E Ultra." It supports an AMD processor. It has two DIMM sockets. 1 has memory in, the other is spare. I cannot find a manual on the net for this motherbaord. Does anyone know what type of memory I need to buy to add...

I've recently upgraded to ArchiCAD 10 and Autodesk ViZ 2007, and my computer is choking on complex models again. It's about time I got a new graphics card as well as a new computer. The problem is that I have been using Matrox cards for years and I don't know what to replace my ancient AGP...

Hi All, I am looking for a program like HDD Regenerator, i.e. a program to repair physiacl bad sectors on a hard disk surface which could be used also with unformatted or unpartitioned disks. The program should run under Windows OS and be able to create a bootable regenerating diskette or CD or...

I've been out of the hardware scene for awhile, but I'm looking to upgrade my current system to a P4 2.X system. While checking out www.pricewatch.com, I noticed all kinds of new features that I have no idea what they mean: FSB 800, hyperthreading, Socket 478, etc. Can someone give me a baseline...

Anything to look for/avoid/be aware of in a KVM switch? The ones I'm seeing in retail stores Circuit City, Best Buy, Cheap Guys are $60 - $70ish, I see numerous much less expensive units on eBay. Thanks.

My wife has threatened to eject the family PC from the living room. So I've offered to improve its appearance by buying a new case and a new (TFT) monitor. She has agreed a stay of execution. So can anyone recommend a nice looking box for the living room? And, is there anything in a technical...

I posted this in alt.windows-xp last week, but had no response. Original problem was add-remove program would not work, but then found out other things were messed up. Googling didn't help much, so decided to post here in hopes of some help. Trying to reinstall my printer with installation cd i...

Usually you worried about someone being in your back pocket. Now they're a ****ing download! Same old ****, different day. If I find a tracker, I'll leave no trace of either.

Hi all, I powered up my computer yesterday and the mouse was frozen so I rebooted thinking it would fix it, as it usually does, and the monitor shuts off like it was not receiving a signal from the computer no more. The power light was on, but the HD light was not flickering as normal. After an...

I have my origina IBM Graphics Printer that I bought along with my PCJr in 1983 or 4. And I have another dot matrix printer, with pin feed and a few more buttons, that I got cheap or free maybe 10 years later. And a vey small dot matrix printer that someone gave me for trying to fix her...