Recent content by TheShadowFL

Then that tells the tale.....when you work the CPU, it fails. That's overheating! Pure and simple. Remove the CPU cooling fan and thoroughly clean all the little blades and make sure that it's able to spin freely, then clean all the dirt out of the heat sink cooling fins. Replace the fan...

Plug the computer back into where you had it first, when it worked. If it works, then the new wall receptacle is wired backwards. The HOT and Neutral are crossed. I've seen that before. Some electricians can't tell the hot wire from the neutral. :mad: I almost plugged a $50,000 NCR...

For the past 8 years, I've used nothing but my custom made Windows ME Utilities floppy disk (or CD) to set up all my hard drives. I first FDISK the drive to set up two partitions, and then I use the DOS Format program to format both partitions. Then I can install any OS I please. Even when...

Maybe you should research just what a Celeron is. :rolleyes: Intel sure is NOT going to tell you this, but many Celerons are pentiums that failed the onboard cache tests during manufacturing. With out cache memory any processor chip is seriously crippled. So rather than throw those failed...

the poll is too old.....the AM2's aren't even in the list.

I get that question at least once a week from my customers and I have only one answer for everyone.... Toshiba! Find a model that suits your budget and your needs. Dell isn't even in the running, with poor quality and even worse customer support. Good Luck and Merry Christmas! The Shadow :)

I just took in on trade, a computer I built for one of my customers in 2000. The Thermaltake CPU cooler was wailing! I removed the entire assembly from the PC....removed the fan from the cooler and carefully cleaned each blade with a damp cloth till the entire fan was nice and clean. Then I...

Many new cases today have NO place in them for a floppy drive. The handiest option to come along in a very long time is the USB Floppy Drive. I keep one in my "Kit" as a "Tech Tool". Most new motherboards today, will allow you to boot up with the USB Floppy drive which will usually come up as...

I'm sure I can't explain exactly WHY the Setup program would automatically partition a hard drive that was not already partitioned, but having that second part. in FAT-32 can't help but be a real plus. I regularly set up a second partition for my customers who run XP or even Vista. It's a...

In my technical experience I've yet to see any PSU with a variable speed fan in it. What I have seen though is a CPU cooling fan that will vary with the temperature of the CPU chip. Under heavy load, the fan will speed up and with no load it will slow down to be quieter. Open your case and...

WELL, that's not for the kind of laptop you're likely to pick up at Wal-Mart. Did you notice the terms, "Embedded" and "Diskless" ??? :cool:

If you have a socket 939 motherboard, even mentioning a socket AM2 chip is redundant. They are completely different chips. One cannot replace the other. Either your motherboard manual or the spec's on the AMD website will tell you what the fastest CPU chip your mobo will take. Look it...

If you're not a Computer Guru, Geek or Tech, forget the SCSI route. That's not a path for amateurs. What nobody has even mentioned yet is the SATA and SATA2 drives. They run at 7200 rpm but transfer data at rates many times faster than the older IDE drives. SATA 2 is twice as fast as SATA...

You already answered the question yourself. "Still Under Warranty". Don't touch it yourself, you can wreck the whole thing if you break something. Then you void your warranty and YES it will cost you dearly to get it fixed. The problem may even be in the keyboard decoder circuitry on the...

I've seen dozens of DSL setups around here, with several different phone companies and in every case, the company supplies the modem and phone filters with the service contract. Then once the provided modem is connected, you can connect a router to the modem and connect the computers to the...