The Computerers Corner

[DEATH]

Now that I get to give people advice as an actual "compuutah technician", I figured I'd start a thread for advice and question answering, as well as other nonsense. If you guys gots questions, I shall answer thems. Also planning on putting up a post for you compugamers on advice for building or shopping for good systems. What to look for, what to disregard, brand name reliability, etc.

[The Shadow]

I HAS A QUESTION - how do I find out what kind of video card I've got on my XPS? I'm thinking of getting the new Total War game, and have a good enough processor and RAM, but Fletcher's saying he had to get a new video card to run it on his Alienware.

[DEATH]

First topic is just kind of an "everyone list their hardware" post, I suppose. My personal hardware collection has changed much since many of you last used some of my systems, indeed much in the last 5 months since I've been working at the Computer Hospital and literally sifting through piles and piles of hardware, some of which my boss has given to me, some of which I purchased. Here's a run down of all the crap I currently own. Many of these systems will either be given to my store to sell, to other hobbiests or gotten rid of some other way, because I simply have way too much crap. If for any strange reason any of you would want one of these dinosaurs, I will give it to you, lol, and load it with plenty of DOS games if you want.

Starting with the fastest, going to the slowest, by catagory:
[glow=red,2,300]
ASSEMBLED SYSTEMS (the keepers)[/glow]

THE MUSIC SYSTEM-
2.66 Ghz Pentium 4 CPU
256 MB DDR RAM
250 GB Seagate EIDE hard drive
Dual layer DVD/CD burner
Onboard video, SoundBlaster Audigy sound card
Windows 2000 Professional installed

This system resides in the garage and is dedicated to music recording and nothing else. For both kicks and as a theft deterrent, I put it in this old case with a Intel 486 sticker on the front. Quite funny to look at.


This one died about a year after I put this post up. I had quite a jerry-rigged installation and by my best guess, did not provide sufficient mounting of the board and some sort of flex caused the board to ground against the case chassis and damage itself. In any case, it began to repeatedly blue screen with a Diag code that indicated motherboard failure. I now use the beast for music recording.

THE BEAST-
Dual Pentium III 1 Ghz CPUs
1 GB SDRAM
8 GB IBM IDE hard drive
48x CD burner
NVidia GeForce MX4000 128MB video card, Yamaha XG sound card
Wireless PCI card
Windows 2000 Server installed

The dual processor motherboard was given to me by my work, as we rarely sell motherboards or systems under 650 Mhz for more than $1, unless they are laptops. I upgraded it from the original Katmai-core 550 Mhz CPUs to Coppermine-core 1 Ghz CPUs, picking up the 1 Ghz'ers for $16 a pop off of Pricewatch.com. Also upgraded the video card as I was having troubles with the Radeon, so I traded it (along with a few other items) in at work for a GeForce MX4000 128 MB unit.

THE DOS/OLD WINDOWS GAMES GAMING MACHINE-
AMD K6-2 550 Mhz CPU
384 MB SDRAM
7 GB IDE hard drive
32x CD-ROM
Nvidia GeForce 2 MX 32 MB video card, ESS AudioDrive sound card
Windows 98SE installed

Not much to this system, assembled from about $25 worth of parts from my store and spare parts at home. Used for gaming and networked to THE BEAST for multiplayering.

THE LAPTOP-
Pentium MMX 200 Mhz CPU
64 MB EDO RAM
2 GB IDE hard drive
8x CD-ROM
Onboard video/sound, wireless PCMCIA card
Windows 98SE installed

Just bought this from a co-worker for $5. It's only purposes are for computer tuning/troubleshooting fuel injected cars (like an IROC, which I hope to own in a few years), for wireless browsing on trips, and to play old games on trips.

THE MAC-
Motorola 180 Mhz CPU
136 MB EDO RAM
2 GB IDE hard drive
Onboard video/sound
MacOS 9 installed

The old Mac that my family had forevah. Don't know what I'll do with it. I have a soft spot for it, but no practical use....


MY FORMER DOS GAMING MACHINE-
Intel 486 DX4 "Overdrive" 100 Mhz CPU
8 MB DIMM RAM
350 MB IDE hard drive
Generic 2 MB video card
Windows 3.11 installed

I'm giving this one to my girlfriend's little brother, who I am teaching computer and guitar to. It was fun.

This one died today. At least I managed to get rid of 2 systems instead of one...

MY TV STAND-
Intel 386 33Mhz CPU
4 MB SIMM RAM
Dual 125 MB IDE hard drives
1x CD-ROM
Onboard video, SoundBlaster (the original) sound card
Windows 3.11 installed

Keenan gave me this system about 4 years ago. I don't have any room to set it up right now, but it works really well for a base to set my TV on.

THE BRIEFCASE SYSTEM-
Intel 386 20 Mhz CPU
6 MB SIMM RAM
110 MB IDE hard drive
Onboard video, no sound but the internal "beep" speaker
MS-DOS 6.0 installed

My boss gave me this freaking awesome system. It's all self contained in a briefcase that unfolds to uncover a plasma display and keyboard. It's an old IBM PS/2, and cost $8100 in 1987!!! Definitely a keeper, if for nothing else for the visual effect. Probably will be worth a lot some day because of how unusual it is, and it will DEFINITELY be accompanying me on my next trip to NE. In the process of loading it with MANY DOS games. Unfortunately, I will probably never be able to fly anywhere with it, as it looks like some sort of electronic suitcase bomb.

THE APPLE II CLONE-
1 Mhz Motorola CPU
1 MB of unknown type of RAM
2 floppy disk drives
BASIC is the only resident OS, as there is no hard drive. You must boot anything else from a floppy.

An old system that I hang onto for it's many old games and the fact that it's the only "clone" (as in, non-Apple brand) of an Apple/Macintosh computer that I've EVER seen. Got it for $5 at a Peru garage sale years ago. I have no idea why it has so much RAM. 1 MB was astronomical for the time period when this was released.

THE APPLE II-
1 Mhz Motorla CPU
64 KB unknown RAM
1 floppy drive
BASIC

I had 3 of these before I moved from Peru, but I gave the other 2 away when I moved. I hang onto this for historical value.
[glow=red,2,300]
THE UNASSEMBLED/I DON'T WANT THESE ANYMORE SYSTEMS-[/glow]

AMD K6-2 533 Mhz CPU
192 MB SDRAM
no hard drive or CD at the moment
No OS

This system I'm trying to get rid of. I already have another K6-2 system, and this one I don't want. I would gladly throw an old hard drive/CD in there and bring it with me to NE to give you, loaded with old games and probably Win98SE if any of you would want it. Otherwise it will be given to my nephew or to work.

Pentium 133 Mhz CPU
128 MB EDO RAM
Onboard Video/Sound
8x CD-ROM

This one I may keep, I kinda like it. It's all in a case still, and just needs a hard drive to work again.

Pentium 75 Mhz CPU
16 MB EDO RAM
Onboard Video/Sound

Keenan gave me this one. It would make a really good DOS gaming machine for Liero, Civilization, etc. It will be gotten rid of one way or another.

The venerable 486-DX4, my former gaming machine, hast bit the dust. Actually kind of unusual, as this old hardware tends to last forevah. In any case, this system was given to my G/F's little bro to replace it.

IBM 486-SX 25 Mhz CPU
all RAM removed
Onboard video/sound

This is the motherboard that came out of the case that my P4 resides in. It would be the system that was in my room at Peru and had Street Rod II and other games on it. I also sent my emails from it when I lived in NE. It's going to work to be sold for $1.
This board was given to my workplace and sold for $1.

Tandy 1000
286 16 Mhz CPU
1 MB RAM
Onboard video/sound

I don't know what I'll do with this one. I destroyed it's case trying to adapt it to fit my P4, as this system's case looked much older than the one I ended up putting it in. The only reason I'd keep it is that it has a TV-video output where you can plug it straight into a VCR or TV, which could be a lot of fun for some DOS games. It also may be worth a lot, as these vintage boards have gone up quite a bit in price.

So there's all my crap. I know I have like 8 times as many computers as everyone else on here, lol. What are YOU guys running these days?

[DEATH]

admin said:

I HAS A QUESTION - how do I find out what kind of video card I've got on my XPS? I'm thinking of getting the new Total War game, and have a good enough processor and RAM, but Fletcher's saying he had to get a new video card to run it on his Alienware.

Click on your "Start" button and go to "Run...". After the "Run..." box pops up asking you for a command, type in the following:

dxdiag

and hit enter.

You may be prompted with a screen asking you if you want to have DirectX check the digital signatures of your drivers. This is time consuming and unneccesary. Click NO.

After that (or if you are not prompted about the signatures), you will see a window pop up titled "DirectX Diagnostic Tool". The information under the "System" tab will tell you all you need to know about your processor, RAM, etc. You however want to click on the "Display" tab. It SHOULD give you detailed information about how much RAM is on your video card. Sometimes it has difficulty, in which case you will have to download a SysInfo tool, which I could point you towards, if that happens. That should work though.

Any questions? lol

[The Shadow]

OK, so if I did this right, I'm being told I have a 128MB video card, which is perfect. Medieval II SHALL BE MINEZ! Thanks!

[The Shadow]

Oh, so my system is:
Dell XPS M140 (laptop)
Windows XP Professional w/ Media Center
1GB Ram (SDRAM, I think)
Intel Pentium M 2.00GHz
32x (?) DVD R/RW
50GB hard drive (but at home it's linked to my 250GB Porsche/Lacie external drive)
128MB Mobile Intel Express video card
and, just for the heck of it: 1 9-cell lithium ion battery, which is now completely shot and needs to be replaced.
Plus whatever sound stuff it came with. Since only three or four classes that count towards my majors are being offered this summer, I'll probably get a summer job, so I'm planning on getting a new PC this year, probably a desktop, and I'm not thinking I'm going to settle for anything less than 2GB RAM...1GB does all I want it to for now, but who knows what the next Total War game is going to require?

OK, I've got another question, and I'm not sure whether this is more a hardware or software problem. Everytime I run Age of Empires III, this box pops up and tells me that I only have a 1GHz processor, which is a lie. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the really crappy performance I have at times. Everything runs smoothly until a lot of artillery starts firing, then it starts running REALLY slow (don't even get me started on naval battles...now I just send my fleet in the general direction of the enemy and hope for the best, 'cause I know that if I try watching, my computer will lock up for about eight minutes). So I figured it had to do with the Havok particle effects, but I turned those down to a minimum along with everything else, and completely turned off some of the other effects (like footprints and smoke tracers) and it didn't do a thing, even when I cut the resolution in half. So I'm wondering if there's some link between the weird pop-up and the lag, 'cause I run other games with identical (Rome: Total War) and greater (Black & White 2) requirements problem-free. If so, how do I convince AoE III not to be so gay?

[DEATH]

UPGRADINATION
I gots teh upgrades for THE BEAST last week, going from Katmai-core based 550s to some nice Coppermine-core based 1 GHz units. Huge pickup in speed, as the L2 Cache on the Katmai core runs at half speed, and the Coppermine setup runs at full speed, not to mention the doubling of overall clock speed. Much faster.

As for your query, Sheldon, that's an interesting one. If it only does it to that game, most likely software related. Make sure your laptop is plugged in, however, when you play the games, as a mobile processor will downclock itself to conserve battery power, unless you change the power management settings.

Also, most doubtful that you have SDRAM. Probably DDR, given the numbers on the system.

Pentium M FTW! Pentium M and the new Core architecture processors are based on the Tulatin PIII core, which is based on the good old Coppermine. You essentially have a really souped up version of the CPUs that occupy the beast.

Kind of strange, how Intel totally leaves the Coppermine architecture on P4s (they have NetBurst architecture), and then returns to it for the mobile chips and the new high end chips. At least I have some strange bragging rights to my outdated dual CPU system, lol.

[The Shadow]

death said:

Also, most doubtful that you have SDRAM. Probably DDR, given the numbers on the system.

Pentium M FTW! Pentium M and the new Core architecture processors are based on the Tulatin PIII core, which is based on the good old Coppermine. You essentially have a really souped up version of the CPUs that occupy the beast.

lol, I don't even know the difference between SD and DDR. And all I knew about my processor from talking to a computer repair guy with a store down the street from me is that it's good at keeping my battery going for a long time. Which, I suppose, is true, 'cause for about eight months I was able to run this thing for 6 hours with all the power-saving features enabled.

Oh, and "Don't download this song...even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong..."

[DEATH]

admin said:

death said:

Also, most doubtful that you have SDRAM. Probably DDR, given the numbers on the system.

Pentium M FTW! Pentium M and the new Core architecture processors are based on the Tulatin PIII core, which is based on the good old Coppermine. You essentially have a really souped up version of the CPUs that occupy the beast.

lol, I don't even know the difference between SD and DDR. And all I knew about my processor from talking to a computer repair guy with a store down the street from me is that it's good at keeping my battery going for a long time. Which, I suppose, is true, 'cause for about eight months I was able to run this thing for 6 hours with all the power-saving features enabled.

Oh, and "Don't download this song...even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong..."

lol

The only thing about SDRAM you need to know is that it's obsolete and slow compared to DDR. The rest is a long, boring explanation of the technical differences, and since they're both technically considered a type of Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory, just consider DDR the bigger better version. It's only real notable difference is that it is Dual Data Rate, i.e. it pumps out twice the bitrate of traditional SDRAM. Unfortunately, they're not making this RAM market any easier to understand as there is already DDR2 out, and DDR3 will be out by this next September. It's all a type of SDRAM, it's just that they refer to the old Pentium III based stuff as SDRAM. But given that the average product life of an Intel processor series is like a year or two these days, no wonder the RAM market is going bananas trying to keep up.

[The Shadow]

DDR3?

I hadn't even heard about that yet. That makes me cry.

[DEATH]

Yeah, most new video cards on the market it are already using it.

[GAH(s)]

Hey DEATH, thanks so much for taking my call. Um, this is kind of awkward, but my Sony Vaio has parts of its anatomy that I don't know how to interface with, and, well, I guess I just want to take the relationship to the next level. See, it has 3 RCA plugs on the back, but for the life of Pat Douglas, I can't figure out if they are send or receive plugs. When I use them as an RCA, say to a TV, nothing happens. If I try to send signal into the computer through them, nothing happens. I was wondering if they are controlled by a channel I have to select or if it's something completely different (snicker). Thanks so much Doctor Death, your BFF,
GAH(s)

[DEATH]

gahlsl said:

Hey DEATH, thanks so much for taking my call. Um, this is kind of awkward, but my Sony Vaio has parts of its anatomy that I don't know how to interface with, and, well, I guess I just want to take the relationship to the next level. See, it has 3 RCA plugs on the back, but for the life of Pat Douglas, I can't figure out if they are send or receive plugs. When I use them as an RCA, say to a TV, nothing happens. If I try to send signal into the computer through them, nothing happens. I was wondering if they are controlled by a channel I have to select or if it's something completely different (snicker). Thanks so much Doctor Death, your BFF,
GAH(s)

I take it you are a first time caller GAH(s). Welcome to the show! Now, I feel I have a moral obligation to advise you that you need to have and know how to use the proper protection before you screw with your laptop. I mean, without the the proper grounding gear in place, your electro-static discharge could really knock things up, in terms of a repair bill, of course.

Now, in regards to the interface itself, one can certainly understand the dilemma. It would be nothing less than ambiguous to try to interface two sending units or two receiving units. The interfaces just weren't designed to work this way, and truly no satisfactory transfer can occur while attempting to interface homogeneously. Quite simply, some units are designed to send, and others are designed to receive, and if you try to put two sending units together, neither has the capability of receiving in the way that the interface was designed to occur. In such situations, it's usually advisable to replace one of the sending units with a receiving unit so that there is one of each kind, instead of resorting to trying to interface one sending unit to the other using an improvised and thus non-standard route. The designer of the interface surely didn't intend for two sending units to interface using non-standard routes, or else he would not have designed a receiving unit.

Now that we understand the dangers of interfacing two sending or two receiving units, we can begin with identifying the units themselves.

I assume you have checked to see if there is any small text on the Vaio near the RCA's that would clue you in, like "Video Out" or "Output". If this system still has all of the original Sony software, then you may already have applications in place to either mirror the audio and video of the system over the RCA's, or to capture video. If not, probably the best thing you can do is to check your Device Manager. To do this, either right click on "My Computer" and go to properties, or go to your "System" control panel. Once there, if you are in a Win2k or XP machine, you'll want to click on the hardware tab and go to "Device Manager". Check "Display Adapters" and "Sound, Video and Game controllers" first, and everything else if you find nothing there. Also, you should check any Sony Software that's installed on the system to see if you have any utilities to use this hardware with, as it is probably proprietary and will probably be useless without the proper software.

If you find nothing, you can try downloading Aida32 and inspecting your system with it. It is an discontinued SysInfo tool for Windows that can be acquired by Googling it and downloading it from MajorGeeks. If your hardware was designed around or before 2005ish, it may be able to tell you a lot about it. I don't honestly know where Aida would list a video capture device, but the program really isn't too hard to use. It's like a really fancy and thorough Device Manager.

On a side note, I'm not particularly fond of Vaio's. They are pretty slick looking and usually have some neat features, but EVERYTHING is proprietary on them and is a pain to service and repair because they do not use standard hardware or software setups. Sony's System Restore software alone causes inexplicable problems for some of my customers. Also, in terms of the actual hardware (chipset, CPU, RAM, FSB, the stuff that counts) they do not typically offer more advanced hardware than competitors and are outrageously priced. They typically do have a lot of nifty multimedia features, like RCA outs.....but you can usually still spend less and save yourself a headache or two by buying separate USB or FireWire based add-ons to do the same thing, that will come with a CD to reinstall and can be used on multiple systems.

I'm not drilling you for owning a Vaio or anything, I just don't like 'em. But, Sony is from Japan, so I suppose it's probably a predictable thing.

Hope that helps!

[The Shadow]

Y'know what else is from Japan?

THE JAPANESE

[DEATH]

This had a good start.....anymore questions?