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Archive through July 16, 2005

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2005 Jun. ~ Aug.: All Things Technical: The Help Desk ARCHIVES: Computer Problems? Ask Here (ARCHIVES): Archive through July 16, 2005 users admin

Author Message
Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Friday, July 08, 2005 - 9:24 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Pamy: Old doesn't necessarily mean unusable. Just takes a little more effort sometimes. The 'cleanup' done today, did that include a defrag of the hard drive? Did you clean out temporary files and browser cahce before defrag was run? Are you by any chance running out of hard disk space? That could cause problems with virtual memory which, given the amount of RAM you have, could be a big factor in the computer running slower than usual.

191 ram, btw, is a very unusual amount of memory for a computer unless that is the amount left after some is alloted to video memory. Again, this is where more RAM would be a great help to your computer's performance. However, adding more at this point is only a good option if the cost is reasonable - spending too much on older memory for a machine you might be replacing soon anyway would not be a good idea of course.

BTW, What operating system version are you using and have you checked to be sure all the latest updates are installed also?

Let me know if I can help.

Pamy
Member

01-02-2002

Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thx Dra, I am going to have Bill read the above 'french' and let ya know! I just know how to turn this thing on! LOL

Sirbill
Member

11-09-2003

Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Dra, all i did today was run spybot and adware. Haven't done anything else to clean up her computer yet. We have to get her a new computer mem for her computer is expensive and hard to fine. She running Win 98se, haven't updated i a while may be the problem also. we get into it tomorrow. Thanks for the help

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Bill: Probably the biggest help would be to make sure the hard drive isn't getting too full, clean off anything you don't need like cache files, temp files, etc. - even run disk cleanup if you have that under 'system tools' (same menu where the defrag program is). Then run a full degrag and things should work better for a while.

I understand about the memory for old machines being expensive and hard to find - keeping this one going long enough until you can get another machine shouldn't be too hard though.

Good luck. Let me know if I can help.

Sirbill
Member

11-09-2003

Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:46 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks Dra, I will check those things out tomorrow

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Sunday, July 10, 2005 - 7:17 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
My father wants to record music from his CASSETTES to his computer. Is there some program he needs to do this? He asked me to ask you if you can offer any suggestions??

this is what he had to say in his email:

am trying to download music from my cassettes ( not CD's) and am able to play them through my inputs on my blister sound card. I bought a Y connection which I plugged into the microphone Blaster and it plays but I cannot record as my recorder only records for 1 minute. I tried on the line plug and the cassette plays well but I think I need a program to record cassettes. Can you inquire from your experts if anyone knows of a program I can download. to record cassettes and then I well choose the songs i like and put them on CD.

Thanks for any help you can offer

ETA: Even my Dad , who has never been to TVCH, knows you guys are experts

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Sunday, July 10, 2005 - 8:34 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jan: There are many programs available of course. Including those that are included in most CD burning software such as Nero (Home Page).

One free standalone program I have found very powerful yet fairly simple to use is called Audacity (Home Page) which will allow capture of audio from any source, including line input, and then lets you edit the files with many features for customizing the file before saving.

Also, I know someone here who knows someone who has recently been working on recording from record albums to burn CDs from too. I wouldn't be surprised to see something from them soon too.

Note: The Audacity homepage is located on the public domain SourceForge network - the page may prompt for foreign language fonts, however, you can ignore those messages and still access the information there. There are also support files such as an MP3 encoder that should be downloaded so Audacity can save files in .mp3 format.

Let me know if your father has any questions.

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Sunday, July 10, 2005 - 8:58 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks so much Dra. I have sent that info on to my Dad.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Sunday, July 10, 2005 - 10:59 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    


Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Monday, July 11, 2005 - 3:40 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hey Dra, I received this email from my Dad today:

Great I downloaded Audacity and it works fine. I already have Nero so I should be able to make CD's. I have been playing with the program to learn how to use it and it is easy. Thanks a lot

and I second that..thanks a lot, Dra :-):-)

Goddessatlaw
Member

07-19-2002

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 8:15 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Having the kind of the computer problem that used to make me cry. I've long since learned to harden my heart, so I'm not crying this time but do have a question. Like, what the hell do I do?

Normal shut down last night, nothing unusual. This morning can't even enter the computer in safe mode. The computer is a compaq presario SR1124NX, using Windows XP. Here is the message:

C0000218 Registry File Failure. Systemroot\System32\config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent or unwriteable.

OK, I might be sniffling but I'm not crying yet. I swear I'm not. Any suggestions for a cure?

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 10:33 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Goddessatlaw: This may be a tricky problem, hopefully not, but here's the first steps to try. With luck, this should get you back up and running.

  1. Restart your PC
  2. Keep tapping the F8 Button until a menu appears
  3. When the menu appears use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to select the ‘Last known good configuration’ option.
  4. Once selected press Enter
  5. Your PC should now reinstall the ‘last known good configuration file’
  6. Restart your PC and see if the problem has been solved


Let me know what happens.

Goddessatlaw
Member

07-19-2002

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 11:25 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Nada, Dra - it won't react to the F8 key at all - when you first turn it on it goes directly into "dumping files onto disk" or something like that. Won't let you do anything else at that point til it's done counting, then gives you a F1 or an F2 option - F1 seems to allow you into windows menu option. If you hit "normal start-up" it goes back into the "dumping files onto disk" situation. I'll try and get it back to that page and see if it has a "last know good configuration" option.

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 11:33 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
GAL: I was afraid that would be the case. That particular error message has many discussions about the problem and all of them suggest it is most likely a bad hard drive. There are steps you could take to try to resolve it without replacing hardware, but they strongly suggest they be performed by a professional because of the possible effects (making things even worse potentially). If you have a good computer tech you can call, I would recommend doing so. Or, if by chance the machine is under a warranty, get it into wherever for service.

However, in case you're feeling especially adventurous, CLICK HERE to read the Microsoft help document for this problem.


Goddessatlaw
Member

07-19-2002

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 11:41 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh, lookie here we're still under warranty. I shall be turning in said computer for professional assistance tout de suite. Thank you so much, Dra. I am not feeling especially adventurous, and frankly the 'puter in question is the company like mainframe/hub thingy so I'm not feeling quite as frisky as I would with my home computer. I was just hoping by the click of a couple of keys the problem would be solved. Sigh.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 4:46 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Whew. (about the warranty) I was almost having kittens over the thought of GAL performing computer repairs.

Spygirl
Moderator

04-23-2001

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 5:35 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Whew. (about not having kittens). A doggie induced kitty delivery was creating pregnancy panic for me.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 5:41 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Jujukittens

Twinkie
Member

09-24-2002

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 9:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Rosie
Member

11-12-2003

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 11:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
DRA, may I have an email address to get in touch with you, please? TY

Jmm
Moderator

08-16-2002

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 11:09 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Rosie, You can PM him.

Rosie
Member

11-12-2003

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 11:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I need to use email for this JMM. I will PM you and DRA to ask for an email address. lol

Rosie
Member

11-12-2003

Friday, July 15, 2005 - 11:25 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
PM's sent.

Colossus
Member

05-24-2004

Saturday, July 16, 2005 - 9:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Said computer is dead. Fortunatly I do daily backups on financials. But there is one file that will require rebuilding 6 weeks of entries. F--K me.
Thatll teach me.! Never to young (or old) to learn a new trick the old fashioned way.

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Saturday, July 16, 2005 - 11:22 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Colossus: It is possible the data is still on the hard drive - getting to it may be tricky though. If you're interested in knowing possible ways, let me know and I'll be happy to provide some ideas.