Sorry if this is a bit OT, but I'm not sure which NG to post it to. I assemble computers part-time, with my teenaged son helping out when he can take time off from his studies. For quite some time, we have suspected that it somehow takes longer for me to do a straightforward Windows format than it...

This is about a strange problem I'm facing after I did some upgrades and swapping between some of the computers in my house. I upgraded my children's computer with an Athlon 64 CPU + mobo + RAM, keeping the same gfx card, HDD, etc. I took their Athlon XP 2600+, Biostar M7NCG-400 and 256MB DDR400...

I'll be grateful for any information about what the ATI X200 integrated video is like, as incorporated in the MSI RS480M2-IL ? I don't expect it to be high-end, but which popular GPU will be its approximate equivalent ? Is it better than the nForce 2 IGP ? If so, by how much ? I have not been able...

A friend has asked me to assemble an economy system for video editing. Budget is around US$1000 (all-inclusive except capture card), but not strictly limited. I'll appreciate answers to some questions - 1. How noticeable would be the difference between RAM amounts of 512MB and 1GB, and between 1GB...

I can usually understand the difference in specs about different versions of motherboards from the same manufacturer using the same basic chipset. For instance, I understand the difference between the Asus A7N8X, A7N8X-X, -VM, etc. But why do Asus imply on their website that certain versions of a...

For some reason I am temporarily unable to enter the Biostar website, but I need to know if they have a BIOS update for their M7NCG-400 motherboard so that it will properly recognize a Sempron. A friend's Athlon XP 2000+ died and as I can't get an XP, I tried a Sempron 2400+. It works fine, but at...

At long last, my ISP - the only one in my state - is going to start providing ADSL broadband. I've been offered a DSL-Warehouse DSLW 906E router for the equivalent of US$35, and I'll be grateful if you could answer a few questions (and possibly others later on). Q1. Is $35 a good price for this...

I think anyone who works regularly with or on computers will have noticed how unreliable modern floppy diskettes have become. But I've begun to wonder if it's the drives and not the diskettes that are responsible. For many people, a discussion of floppy disks and drives would be academic, but they...

A client's Athlon XP 1800+ CPU died the other day. She doesn't need anything more powerful and XPs in any speed are becoming rare in my part of the world, so I thought I'd replace it with a Sempron 2200+. Since the A7N266-VM motherboard has a max FSB of 133/266, I expect the Sempron will plod along...

Some time ago, I ran into problems trying to install a Pinnacle TV tuner on an 810e motherboard. There seemed to be a conflict of resources and I shelved it. It was a basic system with no other add-on card, just a HDD and a CD writer. I tried substituting the onboard sound with a separate sound...

I apologise for posting an obviously OT question, but this seems to me like one of the most active plus knowledgeable NGs. alt.internet.services is mostly spam and I don't know any other appropriate group. My ISP's newsserver is so often unavailable that I no longer even try to use it. I live in...

I have an old PIII computer that I want to rejuvenate for my daughter, but the mobo appears to have the 32GB HDD limitation. I don't have anything smaller than 40GB, and don't want to use the 32GB limiting jumper except as a last resort. The mobo is an ATC-6240 (A-Trend, I believe) v1.1 07WB....

Last Monday, lightning struck a friend's house and damaged several computers that are connected as a neighbourhood LAN. In one of these some chips on the mobo were literally blown up. I removed the processor (an Athlon XP 2400+) and asked the owner and his uncle (a close friend and fairly...

A friend wants me to help set up a small Internet cafe and I'd appreciate some thoughts on the hardware configuration. We'd like to economise where possible, but avoid short-sighted penny-pinching. The target is to avoid needing serious upgrade for at least 2 years, preferably longer. We don't have...

What would be the approximate equivalent of an ATi Radeon 9200SE in the nVidia line ?

I apologise for what may be a somewhat OT post, but it seems to me that this NG would be most well informed about it. Sony Micro Vault USB 2.0 memory sticks are being widely offered at online auction sites in India. One seller is offering a 256MB stick for the equiv of US$25 all-inclusive. One...

Machine (customer's) : P4-1.9GHz, Intel 845GLVA, Win XP Pro. Seagate 40GB 7.2krpm, Sony 52x CD drive as secondary master. I want to run a DOS program on this computer, inserted a bootable CD, selected the CD-ROM drive as the first boot device in BIOS. The CD access light flickered for a few...

I make extensive use of an OEM version of Norton Ghost 2003 that came bundled with a mobo, and I've always noticed a huge difference in speeds when I make backups on AMD and Intel machines of comparable configurations : AMD always finishes in a quarter of the time taken by Intel. AMD : Athlon XP...

Hi, I bought an USB IDE Adapter which comes with an external power supply "box" that I'm supposed to plug into the adapter. The (laptop) disk drive that I'm planning to plug into the adapter has a sticker on which is written : 5V 1.0A . The adapter power supply sticker has : 5V 2A . Does the...

Hi all. My son has a brand new computer, that behaves a bit weird. When he turns it on, no application (games:-)) that uses the graphics card works, the game hangs the computer totally and a button-reboot is necessary. If the comp is booted first time on a day, that is after have been turned...