Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread

[Zelig]

Disabling services gains very little to the vast majority of users.

I like this guide on tweaking Windows.

edit: Only thing I've noticed off with the guide is the bit about the advanced performance box for hard drives, it doesn't actually do anything.

 

[lndm]

Disabling services gains very little to the vast majority of users.

It's here that you can turn off the HDD grinding services. I enjoyed the suggestion in the guide that I should get over it . Seriously though, I found some good points in there after I dug a little.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have very few programs in the startup manager. WordWeb (dictionary which I use a lot) and the security programs. I don't bother with services because I have bad luck when I use those things.

I like the startup manager that comes with Revo Uninstaller mainly because it works.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

You dont bother with services? Go to run and type in services.msc
Thats all the services you have installed.

 

[Zelig]

You dont bother with services? Go to run and type in services.msc

You can even just type it into the start search bar!

 

[Genocidicbunny]

You can even just type it into the start search bar!

Thats what I meant. Its become the equivalent of Run for me.

 

[Modeltrainman]

On the Microsoft Sidewinder X6, can the number pad be placed on the left side and still function as a number pad?

 

[Gelion]

I hope someone will be able to help me.

My CD-ROM (and DVD) writer has dissapeared from my all of my menus.

I've tried the solution listed on the Official Microsoft forums. The one with editing registers worked fine for a few weeks. CD-ROM drive has disappeared on one or two occasions, but came back after a Windows Update or next reboot. Today it failed to to so.

I've tried the solutions listed here and here. The program downloadable on the first page failed to recognise a problem. The second solution has failed to work. Updating the drivers failed to work as well.

The CD-ROM blinks and attempts to read the CD whenever I insert it, but nothing shows up in Windows Explorer (the drive is gone). I was not able to find the drive under "devices. I am blessed with Windows Vista on an HP Pavillion notebook.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Sounds like there may be a problem with the physical connection. You know how to get into BIOS? Next time you reboot, go into BIOS and see if there is a cd/dvd drive shown there ( I cant tell you where to look for it specifically, I dont know what the HP BIOS looks like.)
It will probably be the del key.
If the cd/dvd drive is present in BIOS, its solely a windows problem. If its not, its no longer a software ( read:windows) problem and means the drive is disconnected somewhere or just plain dying.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'd check the BIOS as well. On my older computer all the hardware was listed on startup so may also be that.

What is the *best* VM for Windows 95? VirtualBox I've heard isn't quite the best.
As you can see, Google isn't being a help today.

 

[Gelion]

Present under BIOS and works again. WTH?! It may well be a physical problem, I considered that but was never sure.... Thank you both

 

[lndm]

Could it have been the reboot? (May seem far fetched but occasionally windows is quirky)

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I once accidentally "safely removed" the HDD and it came back on reboot, perhaps something similar happened there.

 

[Gelion]

Could it have been the reboot? (May seem far fetched but occasionally windows is quirky)

I once accidentally "safely removed" the HDD and it came back on reboot, perhaps something similar happened there.

I started to get worried after I could not get the CD-ROM to work after about 5 reboots. Do some manipulations, then reboot. My last one was smashing the drive into the computer. Maybe that was the trick?

 

[lndm]

Percussion therapy?? Sure can work if the problem was a poor connection somewhere. Cheap or dissimilar metals at the connections wouldn't surprise.

I think SATA connectors were poorly designed and I hate working with them

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

SimCity 4 CtD, so I googled it and got this:
http://simcityforum.com/showthread.php?t=1231

Um...what exactly is "CPU affinity"? I tried wiki'ing and all it said was a modification of the processor scheduling, which just confuses me even more.

 

[lndm]

CPU affinity is about sharing the load between different processors. We could be talking about different chips or just different cores, or even multi-threading within a single core.

Part of the work is in balancing the load so the processors are always busy, and another part is saving time by keeping different parts of a process together on the same processor because the data it is working with is there.

 

[GoodGame]

Could it have been the reboot? (May seem far fetched but occasionally windows is quirky)

Blasphemy!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

CPU affinity is about sharing the load between different processors. We could be talking about different chips or just different cores, or even multi-threading within a single core.

Part of the work is in balancing the load so the processors are always busy, and another part is saving time by keeping different parts of a process together on the same processor because the data it is working with is there.

I get that. So if you set the processor affinity to one core, you're setting it so that core is doing all the work for the program? How does that prevent crashes?

 

[lndm]

Blasphemy!

LOL, my comments seemed superfluous To clarify, I find windows quirky when finding things, especially networks and drives.