Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread

[Chukchi Husky]

Is there any way I can find out if a graphics card will work with my computer without buying it?

Also, what's the difference between a GeForce 9600 GT and a 9800 GT? I checked the nVidia site and it says a lot about the 9600 GT but not much about the 9800 GT.

 

[salty mud]

Is there any way I can find out if a graphics card will work with my computer without buying it?

Also, what's the difference between a GeForce 9600 GT and a 9800 GT? I checked the nVidia site and it says a lot about the 9600 GT but not much about the 9800 GT.

The 9800GT is a hell of a lot better from what I gather. I think a lot of the 9800GTs for sale now are repackaged 8800GTs, since the 8800 was so good.

And for your other question, I'm assuming your computer has PCI graphics card slots, you need to make sure the card you buy is PCI. The 9600 and 9800 are all PCI IIRC.

 

[GVBN]

PCI-E not PCI

 

[Chukchi Husky]

My computer has a PCI-Express slot.

After checking, I discovered that the 9800 GT doesn't work with it. Some cards for some reason with my computer model causes a conflict with another device, but a few of them don't cause the conflict. I wanted to know if there was a way to know for certain if a card will work.

 

[Turner]

When looking at computers online, how can I tell whether it has regular USB ports, either with or without USB 2.0 ports?

USB 1.0/1.1 is the standard from thirteen years ago. Most everything now is USB 2.0, and USB 3.0 should be coming soon.

 

[Atticus]

but you can actually convert to NTFS (yes, it is better) without a reinstall.

Thanks!

 

[Adria]

On occasion, only while playing Civ4, my laptop monitor goes black. The only way to 'fix' it is power the computer off and then back on. Any thoughts on why this happens?

It's only happened a handful of times, and only while playing Civ. My guess is that the computer (Compaq Presario, 4-5 years old now) is just having a hard time keeping up with the game...

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

If you put a hard drive into an external closure, can you remove it and put another one in? (E.G. redundant backups.)

 

[Zelig]

On occasion, only while playing Civ4, my laptop monitor goes black. The only way to 'fix' it is power the computer off and then back on. Any thoughts on why this happens?

It's only happened a handful of times, and only while playing Civ. My guess is that the computer (Compaq Presario, 4-5 years old now) is just having a hard time keeping up with the game...

Likely overheating.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

If you put a hard drive into an external closure, can you remove it and put another one in? (E.G. redundant backups.)

Outside of compatibility problems, find me a reason as to why not.

This question isnt googlable, its just silly and kind of 'no duh'

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I was sorta half-asleep when I posted it And I thought somehting along the lines of "maybe once you put it in you can't take it back out"

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Question: I have a video in both PAL and NTSC. I notice that the PAL video has slightly distorted sound. Anyone know why?

Got some strange results in Google.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

PAL plays back at 25 frames per second. NTSC plays back at 30 frames per second. Most things are recorded at 24 frames per second. When making the PAL version it's made frame per frame so it's playback is slightly faster, but with NTSC they add in some extra frames to make the playback the same as the original recording. Some programs can attempt to play PAL back at the normal speed but it can distort the sound.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

PAL plays back at 25 frames per second. NTSC plays back at 30 frames per second. Most things are recorded at 24 frames per second. When making the PAL version it's made frame per frame so it's playback is slightly faster, but with NTSC they add in some extra frames to make the playback the same as the original recording. Some programs can attempt to play PAL back at the normal speed but it can distort the sound.

I get it, thanks.

 

[Atticus]

How paranoid should one be with viruses? [Win XP]

I might have caught few, and thruthfully, I wasn't surfing porn. Browser opened new tab, which offered in a dialog box "free online scan". I of course shut the browser, and did couple of quick scans. F-secure didn't find anything and neither did Malwarebytes' Antimalware, but I haven' done full scan yet. Ad-aware found four tracking cookies on a quick scan.

Here's some questions:
1. I took a look at processes in task manager, and with a little googling found out that many of them are potential trojans. Is there some way to find out where a process is operating from?
2. If Malwarebytes' Antimalware doesn't notice enything wrong, should I still investigate those processes, or trust the MBAM?
3. Is
MBAM's full scan = smart scan + scan of each idividual file?
The reason I'm asking is that some folders, like civ4 for example, takes ages to scan, and I suppose it would be safe to skip them.

 

[Cutlass]

sometimes if i don't recognize a process by name i have used the windows search function to find out what folder it comes from. that doesn't always teach you something though. i find that a good virus scan program, an external router with a hardware firewall, and running firefox locked down pretty tight seems to keep the viruses at bay pretty well. you can always run a couple different adware/virus scans. not all catch all problems.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

If you can find where the files are, try running them through VirusTotal
http://www.virustotal.com/

 

[Atticus]

Ok, thanks Cutlass and Aimee!

I made a complete scan with Malwarebytes' Antimalware,which didn't find anything, and this question remains open:

2. If Malwarebytes' Antimalware doesn't notice enything wrong, should I still investigate those processes, or trust the MBAM?

The reason I'm worried (which I accidentally omuitted in previous post) is that the virus priotection and firewall of my computer were turned off, and I suppose this is what viruses use to do.

On the other hand I unplugged the internet almost immediately after I got reason to suspect virus, so if it was a trojan downloader it might not have downloaded anythin by then. (But then, shouldn't the downloader have found in some scan?).

 

[Padma]

FWIW, if you want to be paranoid, conficker is still out there. It has been "improved", it is still infecting computers, and it is proving particularly resistant to removal techniques. The *rate* of infection has slowed drastically, because it is still "detectable" when it tries to infect. It is believed that the conficker "network" has so many computers that its processing power exceed that of most corporations, or even governments.

 

[Atticus]

So my computer is controlled by something more powerful than entire countries?

Thanks for curing my paranoia...