The computer and electronics super geek superthread...

[David Hingtgen]

Well this afternoon I made the most important upgrade by far---from dial-up to broadband. Due to old wiring in the house, and it being the afternoon, I'm currently only getting about 30x faster than before, I want 100x faster!

[Hurin]

Well this afternoon I made the most important upgrade by far---from dial-up to broadband. Due to old wiring in the house, and it being the afternoon, I'm currently only getting about 30x faster than before, I want 100x faster!

I went to DSL in '99 through the ISP I worked for (I headed the tech support for its rollout). Then to cable in 2000. I just can't imagine life at dial-up speed. Congrats. You'll never go back!

H

[azrael]

So. . .

Blue Slots = 2 x 512MB

Black Slots = 1 x 256MB, 1x 128MB

Would not allow Dual-Channel. I think.

Oddly, last night I read that the following would work:

Blue Slots = 2 x 512MB

Black Slots = 1 x 1GB, 1 x empty

Apparently, if you just match the Black ones with a DIMM that totals the same as the combined blue slots, Dual-Channel will continue to function....

That sounds about right.

One final wrinkle. I've read several times over the years that "dual channel" performance isn't all it's cracked up to be. I've never looked into it much since I'm the type to just make sure it's working and not "risk" lower performance. But, you might consider just plopping in the latter two options above and keeping the old RAM, and seeing if you're happy with the performance. Though, that would of course limit the new RAM to PC2700 speeds as well as disabling dual-channel. But you'd have more total RAM, which might offset things a bit.

With dual channel, you are basically doubling the size of the throughput from the memory controller to the RAM. It's a quick fix to dealing with memory technology that hasn't caught up to processor technology. You are still limited to the speed of the RAM and how much data you are passing through. Dual Channel would be good in instances where you are moving lots of data through memory like when someone is doing some serious number crunching. But to the simple user, where they may be making less use of that memory bandwidth, the difference between single and dual channel is negligible.

[Mechafan]

Well this afternoon I made the most important upgrade by far---from dial-up to broadband. Due to old wiring in the house, and it being the afternoon, I'm currently only getting about 30x faster than before, I want 100x faster!

Congrats! I went to cable internet in 98 and never looked back. I have 3 PCs hooked up with a slot for a 4th when I do PC repair, a Xbox and Xbox 360 on the router. Dialup could never handle all of that need.

[Akilae]

Hey DH, if you want I got a GeForce 4 4800 lying around the house that I'll give you for free... it's just taking up space anyway. Want me to dig around?

[Morpheus]

Hi guys, I need some advice here.

I own a family laptop (Sony VAIO VGN-E50B/S), its been around for 2.5 years now. Few days ago I upgraded the memory by adding a 1 GB RAM. However now I have another problem, the monitor start flickering and usually ended up in a blank screen. I wonder whether I could buy a flat digital monitor to connect with my laptop, or I could send this thing to SONY service (I heard the service is terrible and expensive).

I appreciate any suggestion.

[emajnthis]

Hi guys, I need some advice here.

I own a family laptop (Sony VAIO VGN-E50B/S), its been around for 2.5 years now. Few days ago I upgraded the memory by adding a 1 GB RAM. However now I have another problem, the monitor start flickering and usually ended up in a blank screen. I wonder whether I could buy a flat digital monitor to connect with my laptop, or I could send this thing to SONY service (I heard the service is terrible and expensive).

I appreciate any suggestion.

That's a tough bag of tricks because sending stuff to service is never any fun. The problem with laptops is that there are a lot less trouble shooting methods that the average person can make without tearing the computer apart. The upgrade could've caused more heat throughout the computer which may be taking a toll on the motherboard or the video card. It could be that your video card drivers have become corrupt, it could just be that your monitor is becoming defective.

Try rolling back your memory upgrade by installing the old RAM in there to see if it is a heat issue. If this fixes it then you might have to go from a 1GB chip to 2x512 chips though i'm not sure if that will fix it or not. If the memory replacement doesn't work, try reinstalling your video drivers from the manufacturers website (nVidia, ATI, etc.) especially to see if they have updated drivers.

Now that you've ruled out upgrading and software, you can determine its either the monitor or the video card that's defective. Trouble with the video card is that they're usually a combo with the Motherboards to save space (now a days you can get them PnP) so you might just have to turn your laptop into a desktop and grab a seperate monitor or give it up to Sony for maintenance. Another alternative if you suspect its the monitor is you can sift through ebay to see if you can find a replacement monitor for your specific model of laptop. At which time you would have to take apart your laptop unplug the dead monitor; plug in the new one, and then screw it all back together.

If you feel taking your laptop apart is beyond your expertise then don't do it and just send it off for repair. I've taken apart and fixed a dell with a broken monitor which was pretty easy, and a vaio with a broken CD drive which took me forever. Your Vaio might be different but when i had to take my friends apart, it took me half an hour just to get it apart without cracking the case, and another half an hour to make sure i had all the screws in the right place when putting it back together. In the end it was just that the CD drive had juggled loose a bit from the mother board and all that needed to be done was cleaning the connections and plugging it back in (hopefully that might also be the case with your monitor if you decide to take it apart).

Well this afternoon I made the most important upgrade by far---from dial-up to broadband. Due to old wiring in the house, and it being the afternoon, I'm currently only getting about 30x faster than before, I want 100x faster!

You'll definitely never go back to Dial up once you have broadband. I'm among the lucky minority who gets Fiber Optic service as part of my HOA, and it's ridiculously fast even compared to cable. You really don't notice that it's much faster with regular surfing but if you download movies or are looking at high bandwidth photos the difference is leaps and bounds.

Edited February 28, 2007 by emajnthis

[Akilae]

I'm among the lucky minority who gets Fiber Optic service as part of my HOA, and it's ridiculously fast even compared to cable. You really don't notice that it's much faster with regular surfing but if you download movies or are looking at high bandwidth photos the difference is leaps and bounds.

*gasp* Fiber Optic service? They're finally being rolled out? Dang, gotta get me one of those! How are the rate plans for those compared to cable?

[emajnthis]

*gasp* Fiber Optic service? They're finally being rolled out? Dang, gotta get me one of those! How are the rate plans for those compared to cable?

Honestly i couldn't tell you because it's included in my HOA, but my HOA fee with Fiber TV and Internet comes out to 179 (HOA takes care of Lawn care, road care, trash pickup, etc.). At my new house which i'll be moving into next week i get fiber service also that's not included in my HOA so i'll be able to give you a definite price for my area (northern virginia) when that happens. I know it varies by area though, and for my area Verizon is the only one with Fiber Optic service (which they call FiOS), but i know Cogent and Comcast are rolling out or have rolled out Fiber service for specific areas also.

[Dante74]

So what speeds are we talking here if you don't mind my asking?

[emajnthis]

download/upload is 15/2, or 1500kbits and 200kbits for the standard FiOS which is similarly like T3/4 speeds and if you're willing to shell out more money you can get even faster service. The standard service (what came w/my HOA) would have realistic download benchmarks near the 17's and uploads at exactly 2, so it actually tested better than what was expected. When it came to downloading movies, it was usually limited by the allowed bandwidth of the host but the best i've been able to download from like Rapidshare or megaupload was 2 or 3 MB/s (so a 300MB movie takes an average of 3-5 minutes to download). Downloading from multiple FTP sites at once, i've had 3 d/ls going at roughly 1MB/s each. Pictures like huge scans Graham posts take only a few seconds to fully open as opposed to when i had cable before and it would inconsistently open one picture fast but then open other pictures ridiculously slow.

*edit* extra 0

Edited February 28, 2007 by emajnthis

[azrael]

I own a family laptop (Sony VAIO VGN-E50B/S), its been around for 2.5 years now. Few days ago I upgraded the memory by adding a 1 GB RAM. However now I have another problem, the monitor start flickering and usually ended up in a blank screen. I wonder whether I could buy a flat digital monitor to connect with my laptop, or I could send this thing to SONY service (I heard the service is terrible and expensive).

Yes, you can test the laptop with a separate monitor. There should be a plug for an external monitor which will allow you to test with. Be sure to switch the output to the monitor and not the laptop screen (should be a keystroke). From there, you can test the system as emajnthis suggested.

[emajnthis]

Yes, you can test the laptop with a separate monitor. There should be a plug for an external monitor which will allow you to test with. Be sure to switch the output to the monitor and not the laptop screen (should be a keystroke). From there, you can test the system as emajnthis suggested.

I guess i got carried away and didn't make that very clear in my post

[Macross73]

does anybody any power supply recommendations.

my mom's pc is acting up when pressing the powere buttin it doesnt always come on or it tries to but then shuts off or a couple of tries later it stays on. I havent actually opened up to check the connections yet that will wait until tomorrow. Thanks for any help.

[VF-19]

does anybody any power supply recommendations.

my mom's pc is acting up when pressing the powere buttin it doesnt always come on or it tries to but then shuts off or a couple of tries later it stays on. I havent actually opened up to check the connections yet that will wait until tomorrow. Thanks for any help.

First off, unplug that computer immediatley, and don't use it. When power supplies go bad, they have a habit of killing everything (in the computer) that's connected to it. This is especially true of the cheap no-name brands out there.

Good powersupplies are: Antec, Seasonic, Enermax... And a few others that I can't think of right now.

I'm using an Antec 650 Watt to power my rig. Does the job very nicely.

[emajnthis]

Also don't be fooled by high wattage numbers. Just because a PSU says it's 600W doesn't mean it will be consistent throughout all three Voltage ranges. Make sure you read lots of different review sites to ensure that you are getting a consistent PSU or you will definitely regret it.

[Mechafan]

Also don't be fooled by high wattage numbers. Just because a PSU says it's 600W doesn't mean it will be consistent throughout all three Voltage ranges.

That is so true. You only get the max at the right temperature which most PCs will not achieve because people want quite PCs and not noisy ones with many fans or artic cooling. I have 6 case fans and stay around 26 C. This is good for getting a lot out of your power supply. That why I bought a PC Power and Cooling 510 Deluxe Power supply awhile back.

Information: http://www.pcpower.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf

Edited March 1, 2007 by Mechafan

[emajnthis]

That is so true. You only get the max at the right temperature which most PCs will not achieve because people want quite PCs and not noisy ones with many fans or artic cooling. I have 6 case fans and stay around 26 C. This is good for getting a lot out of your power supply. That why I bought a PC Power and Cooling 510 Deluxe Power supply awhile back.

Information: http://www.pcpower.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf

26C is very chilly, is that under full load? I'm so used to seeing my rigs (because of overclocking) in the mid to high 30's at full load.

[azrael]

does anybody any power supply recommendations.

my mom's pc is acting up when pressing the powere buttin it doesnt always come on or it tries to but then shuts off or a couple of tries later it stays on. I havent actually opened up to check the connections yet that will wait until tomorrow. Thanks for any help.

Yes, unplug the power cord and check the connections.

I'll assume it's a recent but old computer (no more than 5 years). Any PSU from the companies listed previously, no greater than 400W will suffice.

[Mechafan]

26C is very chilly, is that under full load? I'm so used to seeing my rigs (because of overclocking) in the mid to high 30's at full load.

I would say average load for now. I can not remember the last time I took the temp after a marathon session. Plus I put the GPU fan to the max and the Power supply has a nice air flow system to help keep the case cool. CPU AMD Althon 64 3200 OC to 2.6 Ghz and GPU Nvidia 6800 GT OC to 435/1200. I just ordered a AMD FX60 so it going to get hotter soon. I got a Ultra Fire Socket 939 Copper Heatpipe CPU Cooling Fan to cool that. It is two fans with a large heat pipe.

[emajnthis]

who makes good heat sinks now a days; i used to always buy thermalright stuff, but they seemed to have phased out a bit lately. Also mechafan, your setup sounds great but that FX60 will be icing on the cake, and i've always loved OC options being so simple with AMD.

[Macross73]

First off, unplug that computer immediatley, and don't use it. When power supplies go bad, they have a habit of killing everything (in the computer) that's connected to it. This is especially true of the cheap no-name brands out there.

Good powersupplies are: Antec, Seasonic, Enermax... And a few others that I can't think of right now.

I'm using an Antec 650 Watt to power my rig. Does the job very nicely.

That is so true. You only get the max at the right temperature which most PCs will not achieve because people want quite PCs and not noisy ones with many fans or artic cooling. I have 6 case fans and stay around 26 C. This is good for getting a lot out of your power supply. That why I bought a PC Power and Cooling 510 Deluxe Power supply awhile back.

Information: http://www.pcpower.com/pdf/Turbo-Cool_510_vs.pdf

Thanks to all for the help. I'll be doing some PSU shopping this weekend. i think that this system has a 500 watt PSU though i'm not too sure. I'll have to see what the local stores have before the weekend is over or it wont get done for awhile.

edit: it was just a loose power cable.

Edited March 1, 2007 by Macross73

[Mechafan]

who makes good heat sinks now a days; i used to always buy thermalright stuff, but they seemed to have phased out a bit lately. Also mechafan, your setup sounds great but that FX60 will be icing on the cake, and i've always loved OC options being so simple with AMD.

Processor came today. Just installed it and and it is sweet. I am going to wait a little bit before I overclock this. I want to let the thermal paste set in good. AMD FX is even easier than the regular Athlon 64s. The FX has a unlocked multiplier.

[emajnthis]

Processor came today. Just installed it and and it is sweet. I am going to wait a little bit before I overclock this. I want to let the thermal paste set in good. AMD FX is even easier than the regular Athlon 64s. The FX has a unlocked multiplier.

What's the highest you can set the multiplier to? Are you going to stick with your current cooling setup or eventually go watercool? I'm kind of big on both; if an OC machine can go air cooled, then go for it, fan noise never bothered me, i'm not a noise freak. But if you want to get a ridiculous result and air cooling just isn't cutting it, then there's no shame in going water cool. I've done both, but for some odd reason i like air cooling better, but for my recent builds i've had to go water cooling by requirement. Oh, and even better news, my birthday gift for this year (March 5th) is my wife giving me an unlimited budget to build a new rig. I'm still not sure what i'm going to do, but i'll be sure to post my results up here.

[azrael]

who makes good heat sinks now a days; i used to always buy thermalright stuff, but they seemed to have phased out a bit lately.

I've been using Thermaltake. I'm looking at Zalman or Arctic Cooling for my next system.

[VF-19]

who makes good heat sinks now a days; i used to always buy thermalright stuff, but they seemed to have phased out a bit lately. Also mechafan, your setup sounds great but that FX60 will be icing on the cake, and i've always loved OC options being so simple with AMD.

I'm using a Zalman 9500 for my CPU cooling (Socket 939 A64 3700+). As of right now, it's staying at around 25 Celcius in idle, and when I do go up to full load, it never gets any higher than 30ish. In fact, If I so choose, I can turn the fan off on the CPU, and it'll still keep the processor cool, but I don't do it that often.

Edit: A word of caution. Due to the design of the 9500 it WILL slice the heck out of your fingers if you aren't careful...

Edited March 1, 2007 by VF-19

[emajnthis]

Just scheduled my appointment for FiOS install at my new house, except i'm upgrading from 15/2 to 30/5! :evil smilely: The funny thing is the price difference to get over twice the bandwidth was only 5 dollars/month. So as promised the break down of my service is

54.95/internet

42.95/TV

97.90/month

That's really not bad considering i was paying about the same for less channels and slower internet with Comcast about two years ago. The standard 15/2 internet that i've been using is 49.95/month if you get it with the TV, so for 5 more dollars it was definitely worth upgrading to 30/5.

There's give and take with fiOS because for someone who doesn't watch TV much it's kind of pointless because the basic package is pretty much every channel except the movie channels. For someone who was going to get the TV anyway, then its great because you get a million channels for a low price.

[David Hingtgen]

Had some issues the past 2 days, back now. To reply to multiple questions:

GeForce 4 4800--thanks but no thanks. Plan to go with GeForce 6 7600GS.

Servicing a computer: The one time I had a PC with a problem that even I couldn't fix--the manufacturer couldn't really fix it either. They replaced the entire motherboard and formatted the drive and reinstalled all programs. (thankfully under warranty). Yeah, that worked, since it was practically a new PC at that point...

Net Speed: well, I actually am back to my original 2002-era Ethernet driver, instead of the 2005/2006 update. And now I'm getting 7-8Mbps tonight. Woo! Sometimes older IS better. I'm paying for 8Mbps, and I got 7.976 last check... Not going to mess with any settings or drivers with results like that!

FYI: not only was I on dialup, but our phone lines are so bad (due to them being accidently chopped then spliced back together so many times due to construction, not age) I didn't ever even get 56k. I usually had around 24-26k. 30-32k on a good day. And yes, I downloaded the first ep of Macross Zero like that. Took days...

[VF-19]

FYI: not only was I on dialup, but our phone lines are so bad (due to them being accidently chopped then spliced back together so many times due to construction, not age) I didn't ever even get 56k. I usually had around 24-26k. 30-32k on a good day. And yes, I downloaded the first ep of Macross Zero like that. Took days...

And now, it'll take minutes to download an episode, and a few hours to get the entire series. I love my high speed too!

[Dante74]

FYI: not only was I on dialup, but our phone lines are so bad (due to them being accidently chopped then spliced back together so many times due to construction, not age) I didn't ever even get 56k. I usually had around 24-26k. 30-32k on a good day. And yes, I downloaded the first ep of Macross Zero like that. Took days...

So you were a MW moderator using the Low Fi version of IPB, or did you just wait a couple of minutes for the the page to load?

[kensei]

Heheh, hard to imagine Dave being an effective moderator with anything under a broadband connection at 128 kbps.

[Mechafan]

What's the highest you can set the multiplier to? Are you going to stick with your current cooling setup or eventually go watercool? I'm kind of big on both; if an OC machine can go air cooled, then go for it, fan noise never bothered me, i'm not a noise freak.

I am sticking with air cooling. I got it to run at 3003Mhz on air cooling. I stop there. I did not want to push it too far yet.

[attachmentid=40824]

Edited March 2, 2007 by Mechafan

[David Hingtgen]

I considered having "low-speed mod" as my title...

And FYI, I didn't use the low-fi version of the page. I basically just never clicked on any attachments. I just found out Roy was on dialup until November.

[David Hingtgen]

Another possibly stupid question:

I had my PC apart last night to check some things before I order my upgrade parts, and while cleaning out the CPU fan and heatsink (4 years of dust) I "discovered" that the heatsink isn't fastened on nearly as tightly as I thought, and it came totally off, and I got a bit of the thermal compound on my finger.

Do I need to remove and reapply the thermal compound? As there's now a bit less than there was, and it's "contaminated" by my finger touching it. And there's probably air gaps etc.

And it is just cheap OEM white stuff, I could upgrade to Arctic Silver while I'm at it.

[Mechafan]

Do I need to remove and reapply the thermal compound? As there's now a bit less than there was, and it's "contaminated" by my finger touching it. And there's probably air gaps etc.

You should be able to just wipe and reapply if you want to or just put some new compound on top. Just make sure it is not too much and the heat sink is on real tight. I know I got compound all over the place because my heat sink was a pain to put in.