|
Pages: [1]
|
  |
|
|
Author
|
Topic: BIG Computer Problems (Read 111 times)
|
|
Guardian_Tenshi
Global Moderator
Karma: +53/-26
 Offline
Gender: 
Posts: 1114
    
  
|
 |
BIG Computer Problems
« on: July 27, 2003, 05:23:08 PM »
|
|
This is the fun that never ends....yes it goes on and on my friend.
Okay, I have three systems, all in different versions of needing help. First, and frankly the most mind numbing, is my 133MHz Laptop, with 32MB of RAM, and 2GB of Harddrive space. It won't flipping install windows2000. How can you have so many problems!?!? I just reformatted the thing in freaking NTFS and now everytime it gets to installing network components, it freezes. I have a PCMCIA 32bit Cardbus, Ethernet / Modem computer, as this little guy is only designed to be a web browser / AIM mule while I play CS  However, I have no clue what is wrong with it at this point, and am willing to take just about any advice I can get on it.
Secondly, I have P2 - 500MHz computer which I was hoping to turn into a small HLDS computer. Originally, I thought that the original CD-rom couldn't read burned CDs based solely on the age of the computer, so no biggy, I bought an internal burner, shoved it in there, and figured that at the very least, I could now read AND burn CDs. Well, since I had virus problems on it, I had to reformat this beast as well, and now the original Rom IS reading burned CD's, but the burner won't read burned or burnable CDs, claiming nothing is in the freaking drive. I've updated every driver I can for it, but still no luck. Any ideas here also?
Finally, I'm sure you have all noticed, that one minute I'll have a nice 50-60 ping, the next I'll have like 1k+ ping. The problem here is that another resident here, likes to download off of Kazaa or other P2P things, and this makes my ping sky rocket. I would really be okay, if my ping doubled or even tripled (100-120 or 150-180) but obviously, it is taking a LARGE amount of bandwith for the other download. Is there a way I can get the router to prioritize my connection a bit more?
Hating computers, and ready to throw a few out the window,
|
|
 Logged
|
|
|
|
MysteryMachine
Guest
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2003, 09:52:15 PM »
|
|
Alright, I see you have 3 problems. Lets tackle them one at a time.
#1 133 - Why don't you just use Win98SE? It will run the programs you stated, and it takes up less HD space. Have you tried removing the PCMCIA when installing 2k? Any other OS installed? Any error message or code when freeze occurs? Is Novell or a third party network services or protocols?
#2 500 - Which OS are you using? When it says there is nothing in the drive, is this in explorer? You said it "won't read burned or burnable CDs", but how bout normal CD's? Is the CDRom showing up in your system as a CD-RW?
#3 Which router are you using? Some are able to do cool things like that, others (most) can't.
Hopefully with this info I'll be able to help you further. Most of that stuff sounds fixable.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Guardian_Tenshi
Global Moderator
Karma: +53/-26
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 1114
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2003, 11:49:10 PM »
|
|
#1 - I could use win98, but my win98 CD's are messed up hardcore (nearly broken in half). I get no error message when trying to install, the progress bar has merely been frozen since nearly noon today (Sun. July 27th). I do have the PCMCIA card in there though, as I'm hoping it'll try to find drivers for it automatically. I've formatted the machine, so no other OS is installed. I don't use Noveell, or have the ethercard plugged in to any otehr kind of network protocol or anything. I'm still trying to get the barebones of it up and working first.
#2 - This system is also running Win2k, I'm using a "Nero Express" Burning Software, which says no CD is in the drive, and when merely going through the "My Computer" explorer, it also says I have no disk in there. It will read normal prefabricated CD's though, like the Nero Express setup CD, and the Win2k CD, etc. The "driver" Windows claims I'm using for the Rom is "CD-driver" and I've tried downloading it from www.norcent.net and to update the driver, but this doesn't help at all. It also won't let me manually select an additional driver via windows because it claims the current one is the right one, and it autoselects that one, now matter how I try to tell it that.
#3 - The router I'm using is a D-Link DI-624 Wireless Broadband Router.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
MysteryMachine
Guest
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2003, 01:21:51 AM »
|
|
#1 Lets get back to this one tomorrow. Its a little late at night to look into this one.
#2 Try to contact their live chat, they may be able to resolve this quickly. (norcent that is). It does look like a driver problem. I'm not sure if 2k requires MS cert for it to show. Have you tried dling the drivers and pointing windows to them?
#3 Doesn't look like it.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Porter
[Wumpa]
Board Admin
Karma: +176/--88
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3910
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2003, 10:01:56 AM »
|
|
#1 My suggestion is to try installing without the PCMCIA card in the machine. This has happened to me with normal PCI cards before. It's tons easier to get the OS installed and worry about getting one extra piece of hardware working after you have a GUI. 
#2 Though I would take the same tack as MM has with this one, I would like to suggest checking for the latest version of Nero Express too. I've had problems with older generation burning software working on 2k. A lot of it seems to be how the software and the device register themselves in the Registery.
#3 No, that router won't do it (I helped Tenshi install it a week or two ago). If you used a Win2k Server machine as a gateway you could throttle connections, but that would completely defeat the purpose of having the router, be tons more work to set up, and is kinda of "too late now" solution.
I've never looked into it, but I imagine there might be software out there that will throttle the bandwidth of the machine you install it on. That would mean that if you could (surreptitiously) install said software on your co-habitant's computer, it would limit how much bandwidth her-- I mean "their"-- machine would use. 
|
|
Logged
|
[Wumpa] Porter
--Silent, professional, lethal... sometimes.
|
|
|
Ryo-Ohki
[Wumpa]
Board Admin
Karma: +30/-6
Offline
Posts: 187
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2003, 11:29:28 AM »
|
|
Tenshi all the suggestions here seem very sound, but let me just add one more issue. Your laptop is below the minimum requirements for a windows 2000 professional install.
Here is the link on MS's windows 2000 page minimum windows 2000 requirements
Now it is very possible that it will install and run on your configuration but I would look to the windows 98 SE suggestion myself.
|
|
Logged
|
"how does this work? where do my teeth go?" - a lepord cub trying to eat a turtle
-- panda cam
|
|
|
Porter
[Wumpa]
Board Admin
Karma: +176/--88
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3910
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2003, 03:53:38 PM »
|
|
Tenshi actually already had win2k running on this machine, as incredible as it may seem. I said the same thing you did Ryo, "You'll never get Win2k to run on that thing! But it works, even with only 32MB or RAM, it works. I think the only issue is the PCMCIA card holding up the show. As long as he keeps it out during the install, it should go fine, and he can worry about drivers afterwards.
|
|
Logged
|
[Wumpa] Porter
--Silent, professional, lethal... sometimes.
|
|
|
Guardian_Tenshi
Global Moderator
Karma: +53/-26
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 1114
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2003, 04:53:48 PM »
|
|
yeah, that's the thing, Win2k runs perfectly on the system. It isn't a system constraint. Well, I mean, as perfectly as a 133MHz system CAN run. Frankly, there have been times were my little 133 Laptop was running more reliably than my 1GHz Dell. So yeah, it's a tank, and it's heavy, but it's usually a friendly little beast.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
ScrappyDoo
CSR Regular
Karma: +10/-4
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 63
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2003, 05:16:00 PM »
|
|
1st I agree take out the PCMCIA card out and try reinstalling the OS. By chance is this a purchased copy of 2k? If not burned cd's tend to give out over time might need to get yourself another copy. With 2k though your going to look at some performance issues (very slow).
2nd Could be something with the install of the OS (bad install). If your using the same cd as above that could have done it if it was on the way out. You said you had a virus on your pc (which one?) may require a low level format and reinstall of the OS. What version of Nero you using? Their is a new version out that is very nice (drag and dropable). What kinda cds are your burning? Depending on that i could suggest some better software then Nero. You could just have to reinstall the Burner drivers also.
3rd Ping spikes you say. Ever tried directly connecting to the modem and see if the issue still occurs if it does run a tracert to find out where and maybe your ISP can help you. Could be spyware on your machine or the other persons machine hogging up your bandwidth to report what sites your surfing. http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite Awsome spyware detection site (highly recommended). Ask the other person in your residence not to be a bandwidth hog explain things like Emule/kazaa/etc upload so much and only download very little.
Hope this little bit helps.
ScrappyDoo.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Guardian_Tenshi
Global Moderator
Karma: +53/-26
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 1114
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2003, 09:44:39 PM »
|
|
1 - is solved. When i removed the card it got passed the windows install, and then in reinstalling the freshly downloaded drivers from the internet for the PCMCIA card, I realized that they included a special little section about Win2k. So yay! laptop seems fixed.
2 - i still have no leads on this, though I just e-mailed norcent aobut it tonight. their website is borderline pathetic. though, i hope they get back to me in 24hrs, with my luck, I won't know to next week.
3 - are those little spyware thingys detectable by Norton? cause frankly, I call those things hacking (altering files on another's machine without consent). just checking.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
slightcrazed
-TWB-
Admin Team
CSR Connoisseur
Karma: +65/-7
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 983
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2003, 01:57:50 PM »
|
|
3. Nope.... best to try a program like adAware from Lavasoft. Does a reasonably good job of finding and removing spyware from one's system. As for using the router to throttle bandwidth, unless your router happens to say 'Cisco' on the front, I doubt it.
slight
|
|
Logged
|
I once beat Drizzt Do'Urden at thumb wrestling.
|
|
|
Guardian_Tenshi
Global Moderator
Karma: +53/-26
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 1114
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2003, 07:55:43 PM »
|
|
#2 - I heard back from Norcent, and this is their response. Not sure that I've done all this nor how exactly to check that I've done all this.
Dear Sir,
It will display as an ATAPI CD-Rom. This is quite normal. It will not
display as a CD-RW. This drive does not require a special driver when it
is being used with Windows. It will just use the normal Windows driver.
I want you to make sure that you have checked the jumper settings and
have everything connected properly. I would recommend setting it as a
secondary master. This means that the device is connected on the end of
the IDE cable and the jumper is set to master. If there is another
device on the same IDE cable the jumper needs to be set to slave. If you
are still having problems please contact us again. Thank you.
|
|
help me...pls.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
MysteryMachine
Guest
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2003, 10:39:20 PM »
|
|
Alright, if they are saying the driver is correct, then windows did not detect it as a CD-RW. Check this link out, give it a try and see if it helps :
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316529
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
ScrappyDoo
CSR Regular
Karma: +10/-4
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 63
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #13 on: July 30, 2003, 01:42:12 PM »
|
|
2nd Well if that wasn't one of the biggest blow offs I've heard in awhile I don't know what is. NO offence to Norcent but your system wouldn't even find the drive if you didn't have it hooked up correctly. If you didn't have one set for slave and the other for master already your computer wouldn't find one of them when you boot up the computer and thus wouldn't show it under my computer. I would got with the Microsoft article MM provided sounds like a better fix to me.
3rd Nope spyware is evil and no anti-virus software detects it. The site I provided is a easy way to identify if your computer has spyware (or your dorm-mates) and if you do have spyware I would also recommend Adaware or Spybot.
ScrappyDoo
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Guardian_Tenshi
Global Moderator
Karma: +53/-26
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 1114
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2003, 01:59:01 PM »
|
|
That's all good and great, but isn't that article more targetted towards WinXP? Plus, the problem isn't that I can't BURN CD's I can't do ANYTHING with CD-R's that means can't burn, listen to, or even detect that a CD is in the drive when I put a CD-R/RW in the drive.
Can someone better define for me what the tech guy meant by "secondary" master? I'm not sure that I know what that means in regard to the whole master / slave thing, or that I even understand master / slave all together. More so with CD-roms, as I personally thought that was soley a HD issue, and determining which was the primary drive vs secondary then it could determine a boot sequence, or where to find a boot sequence.
Still as lost as every,
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
MysteryMachine
Guest
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #15 on: July 30, 2003, 02:33:29 PM »
|
|
On your mother board, you should have two IDE channels. One is primary, the other is secondary. Now, your IDE cables have three ends, one for the motherboard, and two for IDE drives. The two that are connect to the primary are the primary master, and the primary slave. There are jumper settings on the back of your CD drive (and most other IDE drives). You must have one drive on each cable to master, and the other to slave. Or autodetect (chooses whichever is not taken). You should be able to look at your manual, or the online manual to find where the jumpers should be.
But normally if its a problem with master and slave, the drive would not detect at all.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
ScrappyDoo
CSR Regular
Karma: +10/-4
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 63
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #16 on: July 30, 2003, 06:44:31 PM »
|
|
Could be a faulty Drive. Have you tried removing and reinstalling it?
ScrappyDoo
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Guardian_Tenshi
Global Moderator
Karma: +53/-26
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 1114
|
|
Re:BIG Computer Problems
« Reply #17 on: August 01, 2003, 06:26:08 PM »
|
|
it IS set proper as slave then. Whether it is secondary or primary, i'm not really sure which one it is, but yeah. I'll e-mail the guy back, and see what kind of response I get from him on that.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Pages: [1]
|
|
|
|
|
|
CSReloaded Forums | Powered by YaBB SE
© 2001-2003, YaBB SE Dev Team. All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
