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Orion PC HELP DESK and Programming Help
Sep 08 2003 06:06am

Orion
 - Retired
Orion
Permanent
Your PC not acting well?
Is your PC Making you pull out your hair?
Do you want to learn more about computers?
Well have no Fear!
Welcome to the Offical, yes thats Right I said Offical Orion PC Help Desk!

Ask any question you wish!
Noo question will be ignored! No question is to "dumb." (trust me I've heard them all)
If your having PC troubles ask away, please note I need as much info as possible to help diagonose or solve the issue.
Want to learn some PC tips? Go and ask away!
I will try to respond to your problems and questions as soon as possble.

Sorry I cannot answer any Mac question I haven't touched a Mac in years..

Edit: I have now expanded into helping with programming issues too :)
(C++ stuff only though)

(This has been a Paid Service Annoucment.)
(Please Note any "dumb" question from Jello and Jacen Aratan will NOT be answered in a timley manner :p .)
_______________
When a Man lies he murder's some part of the world. These are the pale deaths which men misscall there lives. All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home? -Cliff Burton Owner of Smily's 1900th comment | <Lady_Catherine> i love your sexy white socks! | (Lady_Catherine) i adore u! | (Lady_Catherine) onion (Lady_Catherine) i lub u

This post was edited by cHoSeN oNe on Oct 27 2003 12:31am.

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Permanent:
Oct 24 2003 04:46am

Orion
 - Retired
 Orion

Ok Here's a post with some usefull links. I will keep updating this as needed.

If you don't know about this site and you are a Windows User you need to know about this. This site will patch your os with any of the bugs in any Windows OS.
http://www.windowsupdate.com

A good piece of software to have. This will scan your computer for any kind of spyware that any freeware or shareware program that you download and install.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com or you can try spybot http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
*NOTE* Don't have both installed or they will say each other is spyware. I like spybot better.

A good free anti-virus program.. If you don't have a anti-virus I recommend you do.
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

This site is good for information on ISP's(Internet Service Providers). It alos has a great little toolset for testing your internet connection and the forums are helpful for tweaking your pc to get the most out of your connection.
http://www.broadbandreports.com

Do you have windows XP or 2000 and a great video card? Seem to be stuck at about 60FPS, even though you say like com_maxfps 120? Simple fix http://www.ryanmh.com/files/reforce.zip is a fix for a Windows Bug that locks your frame rate at 60 fps when you can get higher. All you do is unzip that run it, click auto populate, hit Apply and reboot and boom FPS allover the place :)
_______________
When a Man lies he murder's some part of the world. These are the pale deaths which men misscall there lives. All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home? -Cliff Burton Owner of Smily's 1900th comment | <Lady_Catherine> i love your sexy white socks! | (Lady_Catherine) i adore u! | (Lady_Catherine) onion (Lady_Catherine) i lub u

This comment was edited by Orion on Sep 25 2004 01:44am.


Oct 03 2003 02:46am

Icco
 - Student
 Icco

yay hitting things! ok heres my question. Im a long time intel user but im building a PVR and i need a socket A athalon processor. But i dont know anything about Athalon stuff. Mind enlightening me?
_______________
"this is Icco. Icco is old. Icco is lost. Icco is cool, but Icco doesn't know what the meaning of 'macrophageal sex'." - Vaughn
/Icco


Oct 02 2003 07:44pm

Ulic Belouve
 - Student
 Ulic Belouve

Well, I had the same problem that Whispy had, did all the same stuff, and you know what ended up fixing it?

Hitting the computer case.

I'm not abusive to my case, but hitting it worked. Got me to find the problem. I guess in putting in/pulling out the ethernet cables (I was trying different grades of CAT5 and CAT6 cable) I wiggled the card a bit loose. So hitting it let me know what was up.

Seriously. You can fix a lot of computer problems by threatening violence on them. Hehe.
_______________
Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace.

Oct 01 2003 02:47pm

Gentleman Loser
 - Ex-Student
 Gentleman Loser


If the problem isn't with the hardware, then formatting and reinstalling windows and the drivers will almost certainly fix it. (ou can never be 100% certain about this kind of thing!)
If your PC hasnt had windows reinstalled in 5 years then it's a REALLY good idea to do so.
Just backup all ur data, and either format the hard disk or deltree the c:\windows, and c:\program files\ folders, to make sure no rubbish is left over.
Good Luck

GL
_______________
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
Bhagavad Gita
&
J. Robert Oppenheimer


Oct 01 2003 10:15am

Kueller
 - Student
 Kueller

To finally get rid of my problems with the card I'm thinking of totally reinstalling windows 98 again. It has been running now for 5 years and I think it needs a break. This should erase the driver probs I think. Tell me if you think it'll work...
_______________
Personal sleepness-nights-supporter of Virtue. Owner of the 1000th comment of Daidalus and 1943th comment of Gradius! Owner of the 300th comment of Carda!
-Taught Gradius all his laming skills :P


Oct 01 2003 04:52am

Orion
 - Retired
 Orion

you've resetted the cable modem and all the lights went solid that normally went solid? also you could try, once you restart the modem and the pc, do the ipconfig /renew things, it could work just a suggestion. Umm *thinks of hardware issues* you're network card could have died possilbly, your cable modem is messed up some how, a problem from your Node to you, line wise, or totally something on your isp's end.
_______________
When a Man lies he murder's some part of the world. These are the pale deaths which men misscall there lives. All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home? -Cliff Burton Owner of Smily's 1900th comment | <Lady_Catherine> i love your sexy white socks! | (Lady_Catherine) i adore u! | (Lady_Catherine) onion (Lady_Catherine) i lub u

Oct 01 2003 04:32am

Silent Whisper
 - Retired
 Silent Whisper

I checked the stuff you said and I get a 169... ip. Gotta call up my isp then tommorrow. :/
_______________
"I have learned from Vergere only that there is no such thing as sides of the Force....for the side is merely a reflection of your intentions of the Force. Use it in hate, and it will be hate. Use it offensively in good, and you will find my Truth." -Jacen Solo, "Traitor", New Jedi Order

Oct 01 2003 01:43am

Gentleman Loser
 - Ex-Student
 Gentleman Loser

:D
Lolz!
Sorry M8!
Next time, I'll leave the ladies for you to help.
*rubs bruises from stoning*
*reformats and reinstalls PC after the 1337 h4Xx9r1ng*
_______________
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
Bhagavad Gita
&
J. Robert Oppenheimer


Oct 01 2003 12:31am

Orion
 - Retired
 Orion

Noooo i wanted to help whispy!
*throws stones at GL*
*hacks his pc* :p
_______________
When a Man lies he murder's some part of the world. These are the pale deaths which men misscall there lives. All this I cannot bear to witness any longer. Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home? -Cliff Burton Owner of Smily's 1900th comment | <Lady_Catherine> i love your sexy white socks! | (Lady_Catherine) i adore u! | (Lady_Catherine) onion (Lady_Catherine) i lub u

Sep 30 2003 10:21pm

Gentleman Loser
 - Ex-Student
 Gentleman Loser

Whisper,
Activity flashing usually just means that data is being sent/recvd to the modem. It could be from the PC or from the net.
Try this: unplug the power to the modem, and shut down and pwr off the PC.
While everything is off, unplug and reconnect the lead connecting the modem to the PC, to make sure its securely connected. The pwr up the modem. Wait for 5 mins. Then power up the PC. This is to make sure the modem has locked onto the cable signal and obtained an IP lease before the PC starts.
If you have any spyware removal software on your PC (eg. adaware or spybot), run it and clean the system.
Once the PC has started, if things still dont work, uninstall any firewall software you have running, then reboot the PC.
If it works, you can then reinstall the firewall.
If the problem persists, click Start, then RUN, and type CMD in the "open:" box, then click ok
Then in the command prompt screen, type IPCONFIG and press enter.
Make a note of the IP address it says you have.
If it begins with 169... then the PC failed to get an IP address from the cable modem, and you'll need to call your ISP to go into more detail getting it fixed.
If the ip address is 0.0.0.0 then either the TCP/IP driver stalled during windows bootup, or the network card is messed up.
Check the windows services, and see if DHCP client is reported as "Started", if it isnt, right click on it, click properties, then click the start button. Also make sure that the "Startup Type" box says automatic.
After making any changes click apply and then ok.
Assuming DHCP cient was started, but you still have a 0.0.0.0 ip address, then I would try reinstalling your network card's or cable modem's USB driver. Reinstalling the network card drivers should be just a case of removing the driver from device manager then rebooting. If you connect via USB tho, the driver installation can be very fussy. I'd recommend calling your ISP or cable modem vendor and askling them to walk you thru reinstalling the USB drivers.

You can also try system restore to roll back windows to a time before the problem appeared. Just go to Start -> all programs -> accessories -> system tools -> system retore.
Choose to restore to an earlier time, then choose a date in bold at least 24 hour before the problem started, but as close to present as possible.

If none of this helps, make a note of what lights are on your modem, and whether they are on solidly, flashing, or off.
Also make a note of what ip address you have, and any other info u think is relevant and post it here for us to have a look at.
Good Luck on this one!

Keuller,
I have a FX5200 myself and can vouch that they dont generally produce these kinds of problems
To me it sounds like either a physical hardware problem (overheating, insecure gfx card inserstion, loose RAM module), or a graphics driver problem.

Try completely uninstalling your graphics driver from the add/remove programs list. Then run an application like detonator destroyer to remove and left over bits and pieces.

http://www.guru3d.com/detonator-destroyer/

Wile you're downloading stuff, down load the latest WHQL nvidia driver from this site as well. I thinks it's currently 45.23.
Extract the files to a folder on your c: drive, and make a note of where u extracted the files.
If you have an Athlon processor, u could update your motherboards AGP drivers.
Then, before rebooting, go to the device manager and choose View -> show hidden devices.
Then expand your "Display Adaptors" section, and remove and mention of your old graphios card.

Power the PC down and make sure the card is fully inserted into the AGP slot, and make sure the RAM modules are all the way in too. See if anything is obstructing any fans or airflow vents.
Power back up

Windows will find new hardware, and when it asks for drivers, select the 'Don't search, I want to select from a list' option, then click 'have disk' and point windows to where you extracted those drivers you downloaded. After install is complete, if it asks you to reboot again, choose NO. Wait for windows to fully boot before manually rebooting the PC yourself.

If probs persist, try swapping the new card for the old card. If the problem clears up, then maybe ur pwr supply isnt providing enough current, or you could be unlucky enough to have a faulty video card, and then its time to return to vendor.

Good luck both,

Regards
GL
_______________
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
Bhagavad Gita
&
J. Robert Oppenheimer


This comment was edited by Gentleman Loser on Oct 01 2003 02:22am.

Sep 30 2003 08:46pm

Kueller
 - Student
 Kueller

I have bought a new video card. A Geforce FX5200. I have installed it. But all my games keep crashing and MSN and all windows programs aren't stable anymore. I can only keep my system running for about 1 hour. HELP!
_______________
Personal sleepness-nights-supporter of Virtue. Owner of the 1000th comment of Daidalus and 1943th comment of Gradius! Owner of the 300th comment of Carda!
-Taught Gradius all his laming skills :P


Sep 30 2003 08:12pm

Silent Whisper
 - Retired
 Silent Whisper

The other day when I woke up I woke my comp from it's sleep and tried to sign on ms messenger. It said I was behind a firewall. Weird, I don't have a firewall. I tried using the net, nothing. All I get is a blank page. I checked my settings and it said no firewall was enabled. I ran a virus check and came up clean. I checked my cable modem and all lights were good. I even had the activity button blinking. My question is is this a problem with my internet provider or a comp problem?
_______________
"I have learned from Vergere only that there is no such thing as sides of the Force....for the side is merely a reflection of your intentions of the Force. Use it in hate, and it will be hate. Use it offensively in good, and you will find my Truth." -Jacen Solo, "Traitor", New Jedi Order

Sep 27 2003 03:46pm

Jello`
 - Student
 Jello`

http://www.thejediacademy.net/forums_detail_page.php?f_id=4609 />
Thats my problem :(
_______________
Brady Brothers: Orion-Greg, Furi0us-Peter, Me-Bobby. Long lost cousin to Flash. Midbie Council #007. Ex-JAK.

Sep 26 2003 07:00am

Ulic Belouve
 - Student
 Ulic Belouve

Gah...
Demo version of that only decrypts the first 512 bytes of each file. Poo. That's whay they came out messed up.
_______________
Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace.

Sep 26 2003 12:06am

[DJK]Konar
 - Student
 [DJK]Konar

cHoSEn oNe, I already have Flash XP, so that can't be the prob :(
_______________
Poynts Darkside or whatever First to his beverage

Sep 25 2003 11:24pm

Gentleman Loser
 - Ex-Student
 Gentleman Loser

Sounds like the search for the oldm encyption key failed, or was not performed. You have to let the software scan the hard disk for the OLD EFS key 1st.
(I'm hoping you didnt format the hard disk before reinstalling Windows ?)
Read the included help file for more info.

Otherwise try:
http://www.lostpassword.com/efs.htm
It's slower, and you have to know the password for the old XP account that the files were encrypted under, but you may get luckier with this one.
_______________
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
Bhagavad Gita
&
J. Robert Oppenheimer


Sep 25 2003 06:57pm

Ulic Belouve
 - Student
 Ulic Belouve

Well, the suggested decrypting (down below), DID manage to decrypt them, but the contents are all messed up.

I might try it again, I don't know. I think i still have the original files. Hope so.
_______________
Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace.

Sep 25 2003 03:25pm

cHoSeN oNe
 - Retired
 cHoSeN oNe

Make sure you have the latest version of Flash player. It could have corrupted when you installed it before. http://www.macromedia.com
_______________
Get busy living, or get busy dying.

Sep 25 2003 09:29am

[DJK]Konar
 - Student
 [DJK]Konar

When I go to http://www.lucasarts.com/products/jediacademy - the Macromedia Flash thing in the middle either gets to 13% and then stops, or it doesn't even appear. How can I fix this?
_______________
Poynts Darkside or whatever First to his beverage

Sep 25 2003 01:43am

SaberWeildinKow
 - Student
 SaberWeildinKow

dumb fly swatters...

Sep 24 2003 11:07pm

Jello`
 - Student
 Jello`

AdAware 6.0 is what I use for spyware and it works like a charm :D

And yes, Kazaa lite owns Kazaa... also you might want to disable uploading beacuse I heard somewhere that that is how they catch you with files. Dunno, probably a bunch of crap, maybe I'm a moron, maybe the sky will fall.
_______________
Brady Brothers: Orion-Greg, Furi0us-Peter, Me-Bobby. Long lost cousin to Flash. Midbie Council #007. Ex-JAK.

This comment was edited by Jello` on Sep 24 2003 11:08pm.

Sep 24 2003 05:54am

Ulic Belouve
 - Student
 Ulic Belouve

I did what Chosen said.

Actually, I found my CPU was being used by the spyware. But Kazaa did not like me removing it. Kazaa Lite works, so, well, that'll do it.
_______________
Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace.

Sep 23 2003 07:47pm

Gentleman Loser
 - Ex-Student
 Gentleman Loser

Damn good point C1!
Being someone who only ever uses kazaa lite, I tend to assume everyone would use it rather than its nasty little spyware filled namesake...
Be very careful removing the spyware from your system tho, several of the progs embed themselves into the TCP/IP stack, and if their files are just deleted, it can kill your internet connection.
I'd recommend making a system restore point if you run ME/XP before you run spybot's cleanup.

That way, if anyting does go pear shaped, you can always rollback. The spyware will likely come back, but at least you'll be on the net again, and will be able to seek more indepth help.

If you have a different version of windows, let us know what it is, and I can give you instructions on how 2 repair your network connection if necessary.

Good Luck!
Regards
GL
_______________
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
Bhagavad Gita
&
J. Robert Oppenheimer


Sep 23 2003 06:13pm

cHoSeN oNe
 - Retired
 cHoSeN oNe

Kazaa has spyware!

Download this and install it.
http://security.kolla.de/news.php?lang=en
Then Download/Install updates and scan your machine.

Next, uninstall Kazaa and replace it with Kazaa Lite.
http://www.kazaalite.tk/

Install and you will have no more spyware running.

Enjoy!
_______________
Get busy living, or get busy dying.

Sep 23 2003 05:01pm

Gentleman Loser
 - Ex-Student
 Gentleman Loser

3 things leap to mind
1) Make sure you've stopped Kazaa acting as a 'Supernode'.
2) Make sure nothing is playing in the Kazaa Theatre.
3) If you're using USB to connect to your cable modem/adsl modem, dont. Try and connect to a network card instead.

Actually there is a 4th option. If Kazaa is downloading at 'broadband speeds' (i'm being deliberately vague here, because I've seen this problem when downloading at speeds ranging from 20kbyts/sec to 120kbytes/sec and over), then it may be sucking up system resources whilst writing files to the hard disk. Make sure that DMA is enabled for your hard drives to minimize this problem. Also make sure your not using file encryption or compression on the Kazaa shared folder, as this'll slow things down a bit too.
Let us know what version of windows you're using and we can let u know how to check if DMA is enabled or not.

_______________
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds"
Bhagavad Gita
&
J. Robert Oppenheimer


Sep 23 2003 04:37pm

Ulic Belouve
 - Student
 Ulic Belouve

Sounds good. I have some decent hacks for extending the "30 day limitation", by changing it from 30 to 999 or so. Found that a few years back.

Anyways, I'll try it out.

OK, another question:

Why in the world does Kazaa ttake up 97% of my CPU when it runs? I thought it might relate to sharing files, so I disabled that. Any other ideas?
_______________
Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace.

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