The computer and electronics super geek thread

[shiroikaze]

It was a colossal pain. The PSU that came with my VAIO was underpowered and started to make a noise like a lawnmower whenever the computer was on. Sony wanted $350 to replace it with the exact same underpowered unit... I wound up buying an off-brand ATX PSU and a pair of Altec Lansing speakers, then used the computer for another two or three years with the cover off and the ATX PSU sitting on my desk next to it.

Exact same thing here. Just looking for an AGP video card for my Vaio snowballed into a massive headache, it took me a month of research, snooping, and asking around to see what options I have since I wanted (and I guess had to) to keep the case, which of course mean I'm stuck with the power supply.

Long story short, I stumbled upon a site that listed the actual power consumption of various cards. With the advice from the guys at the Jonnyguru forums, I ended up with the Radeon HD2600XT. Been happy with it ever since.

I still love my Vaio. It's five years already and it's still chugging along pretty well and handles many of the newer games just dandy. Every now and then, I'll get that "mini lawnmower" noise from the PSU just like yours, but it goes away after a few minutes. Not something I should take lightly, but I'll live with it for now.

[mikeszekely]

Exact same thing here. Just looking for an AGP video card for my Vaio snowballed into a massive headache, it took me a month of research, snooping, and asking around to see what options I have since I wanted (and I guess had to) to keep the case, which of course mean I'm stuck with the power supply.

Long story short, I stumbled upon a site that listed the actual power consumption of various cards. With the advice from the guys at the Jonnyguru forums, I ended up with the Radeon HD2600XT. Been happy with it ever since.

I still love my Vaio. It's five years already and it's still chugging along pretty well and handles many of the newer games just dandy. Every now and then, I'll get that "mini lawnmower" noise from the PSU just like yours, but it goes away after a few minutes. Not something I should take lightly, but I'll live with it for now.

The mini lawnmower noise goes from occasional to constant. That's when I ghetto-rigged it with the ATX PSU.

I'll tell you what... it was a trooper. I think I had it for close to five years.

[emajnthis]

Thanks for the info. And yea... I'm going for more of a "serious business" machine, don't care much for entertainment features. (Though a decent media player would be nice, which I think comes standard in most BB anyways). I will definitely check out the Curve.

Most BB come with a lot of the same stuff (GPS, Wi-Fi, Micro SD, etc.) almost all of the AT&T BB's come with Wi-FI where VZ disabled Wi-Fi on all of their BB except the newest Curve. Only other big differences you'll find are Edge vs 3G, camera (or no camera), and touch pad vs track ball. I personally love the touch pad, but some users find it hard to get used to. Obviously the latest and greatest will appeal the most to you but if price is an issue, really any BB will do "Business" just fine. My work provides me an 8820 (this model is a couple years old now) that i put an 8GB Micro SD card in, and it plays music fine, has GPS, has wi-fi, but no 3g or camera. The battery life is mediocre and it's a bit bulky but i consider the 8820 an entry level device and BB's just get better from there. I have a 9700 that i use as a personal phone and aside from some minor quirks (it just came out a couple weeks ago) it's been a fantastic device.

[Vince]

Got a memo this morning:

Beginning today. For limited time AT&T is offering 50% off on every BlackBerry (including Bold 9700, after mail in rebate) and the Samsung Solstice for free (same after mail in rebate). Both offers require a new 2 years service agreement.

The offers are good online and in company-owned retail locations.

I think is U.S only, if anybody is shopping BB this is a good time.

I could get some referral point, but I haven't have my referral info setup. Anybody ask how you know about this just say a employee told you.

[Gubaba]

Does anyone know of a good, free mp3 splitter that can be used with OS X?

As you may or may not know, the '80s CDs of the Macross drama albums are split into two tracks only: side 1 of the record is track 1, side 2 is track 2. this was changed in the '90s reissues, but "Snow Falling in the Galaxy," the Macross Christmas album, was never reissued.

I recently got my hands on the CD, and I'd like to split the two tracks into the eight separate songs that comprise the album.

I could use iTunes, I suppose, but that entails a lot of guesswork and imprecision.

So...is there anything better out there?

Thanks!

[Freiflug88]

I would recommend Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac

Its the best audio editor I have ever used and its completely free and works for Mac OS X. Its perfect for what you need because it will show you the sound levels of the sound files so it will be very easy to spot the silent gaps in between the songs for splitting.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/imag...city-macosx.png

I also wanted to add Gubba that instead of saving the tracks as MP3s I recommend save them as Wave files for the best quality first. Then if you need or want the music files to take up less HD space you can use the program Monkey's Audio to convert it to an APE file. As APE file the sound quality is lossless just like the Wave files, but the file data itself is compressed like a Winrar file and often takes about half the HD space as a Wave file, but still more then a lossy MP3 file.

You can also take your converted APE files and burn them onto a CD. Since the CD tracks were encoded as Wave and APE files are almost half the size you might be able to burn both sides of the original Music CDs onto a single CD if you want. http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/bu...d_with_nero.cfm

Also Just in case you didn't get the PM, Gubba. FLAC files are just as great as APE files!

Edited December 11, 2009 by Freiflug88

[Gubaba]

I would recommend Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac

Its the best audio editor I have ever used and its completely free and works for Mac OS X. Its perfect for what you need because it will show you the sound levels of the sound files so it will be very easy to spot the silent gaps in between the songs for splitting.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/imag...city-macosx.png

I'll check it out. Thank you!

[Roy Focker]

Alright new laptop came in the mail a couple of days ago. Got a Toshiba P500.

1. Keyboard design is screwy. You can't Turn on "Caps Locks" without accidently hitting the Volume button. Wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have to hear a "BEEP" everytime I do that.

2. Windows 7 Huh? Never used Vista. I used XP before. I guess W7 is suppose to be more User Friendly and simple looking. I think I liked the XP setup more. This one is almost too simple. It is like a very short Index section of a big book that you haven't read yet. I like to skip ahead to the interesting chapters but the Index isn't detailed enough for me. Guess I need to read more.

3. Big Screen is fun right? Sometimes it is. Not all websites are intended for big screens. All this space to use but only have the screen is used. Gotta play with the settings more.

4. So I have an HD Screen. Looks great but when I try playing a Video the image is too bright. More settings I gotta play around wit those settings too.

[azrael]

1. Keyboard design is screwy. You can't Turn on "Caps Locks" without accidently hitting the Volume button. Wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have to hear a "BEEP" everytime I do that.

Looks like you get those flat media control panel. I hate those. I once played with a Dell 13" Inspiron with the touch-style media controls. I hated the disc eject "button". Also reminds me of a HP laptop I set up for a family member earlier this year. I hate those touch controls.

3. Big Screen is fun right? Sometimes it is. Not all websites are intended for big screens. All this space to use but only have the screen is used. Gotta play with the settings more.

I got use to wide-screen displays. You'll never go back.

[kensei]

Got the same laptop as you Roy. The touch is great, but I keepon hitting it accidently myself. The screen is beautiful though, and it is powerful.

The biggest thing I've used with Win7 is the search function in the start menu. So much faster to look for stuff.

I love it how you can turn on and off the touchpad with a dedicated button.

Edited December 13, 2009 by kensei

[David Hingtgen]

Is there a way to specifically try to protect against/block out "iframe" attacks? 90% of the warnings I've gotten the past year are those. Including one tonight. They just seem to be EVERYWHERE. Tonight it was on the main page of GMinsidenews.com. A couple months back I got a warning from a British defense industry journal. Last week one actually got through for the first time and really messed up my PC for a day (it was in a pic from a year-old post in a videogame forum that had apparently become infected since then---and I was merely viewing the cached version through google). And so on and so on. Either a lot of sites have crappy admins and protection, or it's becoming more widespread. I wouldn't be surprised if Boeing.com gets one at this point.

Also, I'm thinking about trying to just plain block off all of China (and the Ukraine) on my PC---more viruses than webpages, I swear. Anyone got a list of IP's for that? (I'd block Russia, too, but there's way too many military and aviation sites I go to)

[azrael]

Is there a way to specifically try to protect against/block out "iframe" attacks? 90% of the warnings I've gotten the past year are those. Including one tonight. They just seem to be EVERYWHERE. Tonight it was on the main page of GMinsidenews.com. A couple months back I got a warning from a British defense industry journal. Last week one actually got through for the first time and really messed up my PC for a day (it was in a pic from a year-old post in a videogame forum that had apparently become infected since then---and I was merely viewing the cached version through google). And so on and so on. Either a lot of sites have crappy admins and protection, or it's becoming more widespread. I wouldn't be surprised if Boeing.com gets one at this point.

...

Which browser are you using?

[David Hingtgen]

IE7. (IE8 sucks)

[mikeszekely]

IE7. (IE8 sucks)

And IE7 doesn't?

Seriously, I get that some people don't dig (although, with the right plugins, it's still my browser of choice), but you're telling me that you'd really rather use IE7 over Firefox, Chrome (I use it on my netbook for speed, but I can't say I'm a fan), Opera (9 was awful, but I kind of like 10), Safari (I like it on Mac; not so much on Windows but I'd still use it before IE), or some other browser?

For the record, you can block iFrame attacks in Firefox with the NoScript plugin.

[David Hingtgen]

Too many websites rely on too much "junk". I've had periods where I've "locked down" a browser so that almost everything is disabled---but then half the websites of the world don't work right, and you have to click approve/allow on every single page. Wouldn't "no script" do a whole lot more than merely block iframe problems?

[mikeszekely]

Too many websites rely on too much "junk". I've had periods where I've "locked down" a browser so that almost everything is disabled---but then half the websites of the world don't work right, and you have to click approve/allow on every single page. Wouldn't "no script" do a whole lot more than merely block iframe problems?

By default, NoScript prevents Javascript from running without your approval. There's also an add-on called YesScript that lets you create a Java blacklist, or several other add ons to tweak Java's behavior.

[Roy Focker]

Well I just setup a new wireless network.

First time doing it. Lost my Key/Password years ago and had redo it all from scratch if I wanted to move my new computer more than 3 feet away. Guess my router came with a setup CD. Where did it go? I think it was stolen by that Geek at Best Buy that set things up the first time. Read some of the router's manual. Wish it was more common nitwit friendly. I guess the setup CD is for idiots like me. Hell if I did things correctly kept most of the default settings. Was smart enough to use a WPA2 security with a huge password to prevent my neighbor from using it. Should stop the idiots but not the smart ones I guess. Just to be safe I will be using a wired connection when I conduct business.

Yes I hate the "junk" sites use as well. All that stuff is neat looking but go on the wrong site and your screwed. I'm so paranoid from the viruses I got before. I'm done with random browsing. Go to some semi-legimate looking site and discover the danger hiding in the junk. I can now just look at a URL on google and know it could be bad because of the country of origin. My Internet now is limited to a long list on my favorites.

[mikeszekely]

Does anyone have an Android phone? Can anyone explain what the big deal with it is? A friend of mine and I were at the Verizon store the other day, and we both decided to get new phones. He went with the Droid (and he's my third friend and seemingly umpteenth acquaintance to do so); I went with the HTC Touch Pro2. And I just don't get it.

I mean, the iPhone I understand. Despite its flaws, when it debuted it was a gorgeous and easy-to-use device aimed at general users competing against phones that were often large and clunky business affairs. Blackberry, I get. RIM was already a major player in the smartphone market and has maintained a dedicated following. Even Palm I get. I think webOS looks fantastic, and the primary issue holding it back is that it's only on two unimpressive handsets.

Yet on sites I read, like Engadget and Gizmodo, Android is often lauded as the best alternative/competition to the iPhone, and Windows Mobile is almost universally derided. Don't get me wrong, I get a lot of the complaints about Windows Mobile. It's true that in it's raw form, even the new 6.5 update isn't what you'd call pretty. And yeah, it's not always finger-friendly. Different developers but their own UIs over top of it, though, and some of them (like TouchFLO) are quite attractive and certainly go a long way toward making WinMo finger-friendly enough. Plus, although not always for novices, Windows Mobile is an open platform, leaving tons of room for further customization and third-party applications.

What I'm really not getting is why Android gets a pass. It looks good when covered up with a developer UI like Sense, but in the raw it's just as ugly as WinMo. While it's become something of a sport to try to root Android devices to accept third-party apps, out of the box Android is a closed platform. And after screwing around with the Droid for awhile, I'm not seeing any killer features that would make me say that any Android phone is an "iPhone killer."

I expect that over time Apple will turn out to be their own biggest enemy in the smartphone market. It's current dominance (at least in the American market) forces RIM, Palm, Google, and Microsoft to continue to improve their software while Motorola, LG, Samsung, and HTC continue to improve their hardware. Meanwhile, we get one new iPhone a year retaining a design that's not as sexy as it used to be and adding improvements like MMS that the competition already has. In the meantime, I think as long as you're happy with whatever smartphone you have, be it an iPhone, Android, WinMo, or something else, that's just fine. Whatever works for you. I just don't get why it seems that the internet hates WinMo so much and thinks Android's the best thing since nachos. If anyone with an Android phone could explain it to me, that'd be great.

[Gaijin]

Does anyone have an Android phone? Can anyone explain what the big deal with it is? A friend of mine and I were at the Verizon store the other day, and we both decided to get new phones. He went with the Droid (and he's my third friend and seemingly umpteenth acquaintance to do so); I went with the HTC Touch Pro2. And I just don't get it.

I mean, the iPhone I understand. Despite its flaws, when it debuted it was a gorgeous and easy-to-use device aimed at general users competing against phones that were often large and clunky business affairs. Blackberry, I get. RIM was already a major player in the smartphone market and has maintained a dedicated following. Even Palm I get. I think webOS looks fantastic, and the primary issue holding it back is that it's only on two unimpressive handsets.

Yet on sites I read, like Engadget and Gizmodo, Android is often lauded as the best alternative/competition to the iPhone, and Windows Mobile is almost universally derided. Don't get me wrong, I get a lot of the complaints about Windows Mobile. It's true that in it's raw form, even the new 6.5 update isn't what you'd call pretty. And yeah, it's not always finger-friendly. Different developers but their own UIs over top of it, though, and some of them (like TouchFLO) are quite attractive and certainly go a long way toward making WinMo finger-friendly enough. Plus, although not always for novices, Windows Mobile is an open platform, leaving tons of room for further customization and third-party applications.

What I'm really not getting is why Android gets a pass. It looks good when covered up with a developer UI like Sense, but in the raw it's just as ugly as WinMo. While it's become something of a sport to try to root Android devices to accept third-party apps, out of the box Android is a closed platform. And after screwing around with the Droid for awhile, I'm not seeing any killer features that would make me say that any Android phone is an "iPhone killer."

I expect that over time Apple will turn out to be their own biggest enemy in the smartphone market. It's current dominance (at least in the American market) forces RIM, Palm, Google, and Microsoft to continue to improve their software while Motorola, LG, Samsung, and HTC continue to improve their hardware. Meanwhile, we get one new iPhone a year retaining a design that's not as sexy as it used to be and adding improvements like MMS that the competition already has. In the meantime, I think as long as you're happy with whatever smartphone you have, be it an iPhone, Android, WinMo, or something else, that's just fine. Whatever works for you. I just don't get why it seems that the internet hates WinMo so much and thinks Android's the best thing since nachos. If anyone with an Android phone could explain it to me, that'd be great.

People who hate the iPhone need something to embrace. Android is the closest thing. Even though it's not.

[mikeszekely]

People who hate the iPhone need something to embrace. Android is the closest thing. Even though it's not.

That's kind of what I'm not getting. Wouldn't the Pre or the Pixi be a better choice? Gorgeous OS on a limited number of devices on a single carrier. And if I'm not mistaken, Palm had an app store before Android.

For that matter, why the Droid specifically? Even if you accept the notion that Android is the de facto iPhone alternative, solid HTC hardware with their beautiful Sense UI like the Droid Eris or the Hero seem a lot more attractive than a brick from the same people who heaped piles of cheap RAZRs on us? Maybe that's why the Nexus One is getting so much buzz...

Maybe I don't get it because I don't hate the iPhone. I have zero interest in owning one, I'm not above pointing out its obvious flaws, but I can see why people like it.

[nhyone]

IE7. (IE8 sucks)

No it doesn't.

IE 8 finally does CSS 2.1 right. It is able to use the same stylesheet as the other browsers, such as FireFox 3. (No CSS hacks needed, unless you like rounded corners and translucent backgrounds.) And if you need IE 7, it's built into IE 8! Just toggle it. I have no need for a separate IE 7 anymore.

And what's this iframe attack? Does it exploit some buffer overflow to escape from the browser sandbox and execute some native code? Otherwise I don't see how it can compromise your machine. Even ActiveX isn't run automatically anymore. (Is your IE patched?)

(And if you are running on Vista/Win7, be sure to run IE in its protected mode. It'll limit any damage if compromised -- the browser is running in a limited account and has limited access to the registry/file system. To break it, the attacker needs to gain root level access -- yet another hurdle.)

I use Opera for my daily surfing and I turn off Flash/Java. (They can be toggled quickly via F12) There is no need to block cookies or disable JavaScript. This works well enough for most sites.

Edited December 24, 2009 by nhyone

[emajnthis]

That's kind of what I'm not getting. Wouldn't the Pre or the Pixi be a better choice? Gorgeous OS on a limited number of devices on a single carrier. And if I'm not mistaken, Palm had an app store before Android.

For that matter, why the Droid specifically? Even if you accept the notion that Android is the de facto iPhone alternative, solid HTC hardware with their beautiful Sense UI like the Droid Eris or the Hero seem a lot more attractive than a brick from the same people who heaped piles of cheap RAZRs on us? Maybe that's why the Nexus One is getting so much buzz...

Maybe I don't get it because I don't hate the iPhone. I have zero interest in owning one, I'm not above pointing out its obvious flaws, but I can see why people like it.

The Droid Eris is a fantastic phone, my co-worker just got one and he loves it, i goofed with it a bit and it's Sense UI is pretty remarkable. It isn't without it's flaws though, some apps would crash the phone, and many menus that you would expect to be simple navigation are overtly complex, a lot of that fades once you get an idea of how the phone operates. I think a lot of the apps crashing the phone might be due to it having Android 1.5 instead of 2.1, which is expected to have an upgrade very shortly. I also got a long hands on with the Moto Droid and for a Motorola it's a huge step in the right direction, but the keyboard is absolutely useless and it weighs a ton, it feels like you're holding a brick in your hand. I looked up the specs and it doesn't weigh that much over most other smart phones but i guess the weight is balanced poorly because the sucker feels heavy. Build quality feels good, but with Moto's track record i'm waiting to hear reports of how it really holds up over time.

[myk]

Got a strange one for you guys: I've always had my cable modem connected via usb, but I figured I'd start using an ethernet cable, however I can't get it to work. Windows tells me that the card is enabled and working properly, but all I get is a "limited or no connectivity" message when I check the status of the connection. I've tried resetting the modem, shutting down the system, etc. The driver's current on both the modem and the card. I tried the "repair" option for the local connection but then windows says it can't renew my IP address so it can't repair the connection. A friend helped me "flush" the DNS file or whatever, as well as just erasing the local connection that represented my usb hookup but no dice. I dunno I'm stumped-as soon as I hook up the usb cable I can connect but with the ethernet cable there's no connection? If you guys have any ideas I'd really appreciate it. Thanks...

[Ghost Train]

Got a strange one for you guys: I've always had my cable modem connected via usb, but I figured I'd start using an ethernet cable, however I can't get it to work. Windows tells me that the card is enabled and working properly, but all I get is a "limited or no connectivity" message when I check the status of the connection. I've tried resetting the modem, shutting down the system, etc. The driver's current on both the modem and the card. I tried the "repair" option for the local connection but then windows says it can't renew my IP address so it can't repair the connection. A friend helped me "flush" the DNS file or whatever, as well as just erasing the local connection that represented my usb hookup but no dice. I dunno I'm stumped-as soon as I hook up the usb cable I can connect but with the ethernet cable there's no connection? If you guys have any ideas I'd really appreciate it. Thanks...

This might be a stretch, but have you tested with another cable ? Ideally, you want Cat5 or higher for most networks today. Also, make sure the cable is not a crossover-cable (for PC to PC connections).

[emajnthis]

also make sure your Local Area Connection is set to "obtain an ip address automatically" and to ensure your NIC is not malfunctioning, ping the loopback address. go to start->run, type cmd hit OK, in the command prompt type: ping 127.0.0.1 (if it says reply with four/four success, then your NIC is working). To ensure you're obtaining your ip and dns info automatically, go to Start->Control Panel->Network Connections (you may have to click "show classic view" in the upper left hand corner to reveal "Network Connections") then right click local area connection and hit properties. You'll see a scroll box that says "this connection uses the following options" with a bunch of check marks, scroll down to the bottom of that list and double click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), You should have the two radio buttons filled for "Obtain an IP Address automatically" and "Obtain DNS Server addresses automatically", if you don't, select then and hit OK for both open windows. Like Ghost Train suggested, ensure you have a working CAT5 cable. If you have the ability to web/telnet/ssh into the router/modem, then access it and check to see if DHCP is enabled on the external interfaces. Often times this is as simple as opening a browser and typing 192.168.1.1 in your browser's address bar then exploring your options in the router/modem. Also if you have another computer or networking device available to you, try to connect it to see if it receives an IP address and can route to the internet.

[myk]

You should have the two radio buttons filled for "Obtain an IP Address automatically" and "Obtain DNS Server addresses automatically", if you don't, select then and hit OK for both open windows. Like Ghost Train suggested, ensure you have a working CAT5 cable.

Thanks for the input guys. I looked into everything you guys suggested except for verifying if the cable actually works or not. I'll buy a CAT5 cable just in case. I was reading online about some people who weren't able to switch either because the initial setup of the modem, whether it was USB or ethernet, would dicatate how the computer would look for the modem. I'm wondering if that's the case here? Once again, thanks for the ideas, guys...

[shiroikaze]

I have an old e-Geforce 6200 LE that my uncle gave me, never got any of my computers to boot up with this thing installed though. It's a curious thing really, since it looks like it needs another power source since there is a 2-pin connector near the heatsink.

I've never really seen that connector before, but let me guess: Only for older power supplies?

Also, would it make a world of difference if I make a separate partition for the pagefile for Windows 7?

If I'm considering to make three partitions (OS, pagefile, applications/data), where should I place it? In the middle or the outer edge?

[azrael]

Thanks for the input guys. I looked into everything you guys suggested except for verifying if the cable actually works or not. I'll buy a CAT5 cable just in case. I was reading online about some people who weren't able to switch either because the initial setup of the modem, whether it was USB or ethernet, would dicatate how the computer would look for the modem. I'm wondering if that's the case here? Once again, thanks for the ideas, guys...

Out of curiosity, does the cable modem have a control panel page, i.e can you access the cable modem's setup page via a browser or through some software, and check to see if it has Ethernet connectivity enabled?

I have an old e-Geforce 6200 LE that my uncle gave me, never got any of my computers to boot up with this thing installed though. It's a curious thing really, since it looks like it needs another power source since there is a 2-pin connector near the heatsink.

I've never really seen that connector before, but let me guess: Only for older power supplies?

Nope. It's to power a fan if one was installed on the card. Some GeForce 6200s came with a fan attached to the heatsink.

Also, would it make a world of difference if I make a separate partition for the pagefile for Windows 7?

If I'm considering to make three partitions (OS, pagefile, applications/data), where should I place it? In the middle or the outer edge?

No. As of Windows XP (or was it 2000), you can make a pagefile on another partition or disk. It would be silly but yes it's valid. However, as of Windows XP, disk partitioning somewhat hindered performance since XP (and beyond) optimizes disk usage using the swap space. So in the end, it's not really worth it to create a separate partition for the page file. Considering drives are plenty big now, I no longer put swap files on their own partition. I just make the OS partition large enough to hold the page file.

[shiroikaze]

Ahh. Thanks as always, Azrael.

I guess that means that Fry's must've sold my uncle a dead board back then and he didn't even know it.

Edited December 28, 2009 by shiroikaze

[nhyone]

Also, would it make a world of difference if I make a separate partition for the pagefile for Windows 7?

If I'm considering to make three partitions (OS, pagefile, applications/data), where should I place it? In the middle or the outer edge?

Do you need to separate OS and app on two partitions? Most likely the apps won't work when you reinstall the OS.

Do you need a pagefile? If you have enough RAM (2.5 - 3GB), you can turn the pagefile off. Performance becomes a dog when you hit the pagefile anyway, so you'll rather run out of memory.

Do you need to separate the OS and data? While preserving the data across OS reinstall is nice, you still want to backup just in case. More than one colleague had their partitions wiped out when they overlooked that the company's OS installer do a fresh install -- even across different HDs.

Windows store the user data in the Users dir. Unless you move it out of the OS partition, you will still fragment your OS partition easily.

As for fragmentation, Vista onwards use a more sensible approach of defragmenting to 64MB parts. That's sufficient to get good sequential speeds.

Soon, when SSDs are common, there will be no more of this partitioning nonsense.

[myk]

Out of curiosity, does the cable modem have a control panel page, i.e can you access the cable modem's setup page via a browser or through some software, and check to see if it has Ethernet connectivity enabled?

Damn that's an excellent question.

-Edit: I went online and tried a configuration manager that I found through google; everything checks out but there wasn't an option/spec for ethernet connectivity.

Odd thing I noticed: with the modem on and hooked up via ethernet it says "limited or no connectivity." When I turn the modem off the computer says that I have a connection. How can you have a connection if your modem is off?

Edited December 28, 2009 by myk

[azrael]

Damn that's an excellent question.

-Edit: I went online and tried a configuration manager that I found through google; everything checks out but there wasn't an option/spec for ethernet connectivity.

Odd thing I noticed: with the modem on and hooked up via ethernet it says "limited or no connectivity." When I turn the modem off the computer says that I have a connection. How can you have a connection if your modem is off?

What model of cable modem is this (maker/model)?

[Ghost Train]

Damn that's an excellent question.

-Edit: I went online and tried a configuration manager that I found through google; everything checks out but there wasn't an option/spec for ethernet connectivity.

Odd thing I noticed: with the modem on and hooked up via ethernet it says "limited or no connectivity." When I turn the modem off the computer says that I have a connection. How can you have a connection if your modem is off?

It sounds to me like you might be using a wireless connection perhaps from your neighbor or something. You might have accidentally signed up to an unsecured wireless network near your home a while ago, and when you turned your modem off it went to look up the default wireless network you last used. This definitely is the case, if you can get on the internet after you've turned your modem off . (Sorry if this sounded dumb.... but it happened to me once)

[shiroikaze]

Do you need to separate OS and app on two partitions? Most likely the apps won't work when you reinstall the OS.

True, but so far Photoshop is the only program (and maybe MS products as well) I have that doesn't work properly after a reinstall. Everything else that I have (thankfully) still works.

Do you need a pagefile? If you have enough RAM (2.5 - 3GB), you can turn the pagefile off. Performance becomes a dog when you hit the pagefile anyway, so you'll rather run out of memory.

I've read conflicting information, so that's why I asked.

I'll probably leave it as is.

Do you need to separate the OS and data? While preserving the data across OS reinstall is nice, you still want to backup just in case. More than one colleague had their partitions wiped out when they overlooked that the company's OS installer do a fresh install -- even across different HDs.

Windows store the user data in the Users dir. Unless you move it out of the OS partition, you will still fragment your OS partition easily.

As for fragmentation, Vista onwards use a more sensible approach of defragmenting to 64MB parts. That's sufficient to get good sequential speeds.

Nice to know. I prefer to keep most of it separate, but I will backup the important stuff.

Soon, when SSDs are common, there will be no more of this partitioning nonsense.

ehh, still a little far off for me.

[myk]

It sounds to me like you might be using a wireless connection perhaps from your neighbor or something...

SIGH. So I bought a new cable and still no joy, so I call up Cox to walk me through this. I'm thinking: my OS is screwed, I bet I'll have to reformat or something. So the tech asks me to turn off my modem. I'm thinking, "duh, I've only been doing that all goddamn week," but whatever, I've got to let this guy go through the checklist. So, I turn it off, THEN he tells me to "unplug" it. I'm thinking it CAN'T be that easy. After I plug in my ethernet and power up my internet is good to go. LOL...