the computer questions/problems thread

[joetron2030]

Yeah, that's one thing I'm considering.

The other is moving the HDD that I'm saving the captured data to from the current IDE bus that it's on. My system and data partitions are on the 120 GB HDD. The video data is on the 160GB HDD. Both are on the same IDE bus currently. The other mobo-based IDE bus only has my DVD-RW drive on it.

[kamenriderv3]

yeah. i would leave the 120 drive on the first ide bus and share the second bus between the 160 drive and dvd drive. writing from the 160 to dvd may be slowed down some but its probably less problematic than the current configuration.

[Aaron]

I've had a similar problem on my computer. My DVD writer drive sometimes goes to PIO mode instead of Ultra DMA mode.
Might be something like that happening on your HD.

I had similar symptons, reboot and it would go back to Ultra DMA.

Check the settings in the IDE controller.

I had to change something in my bios to get it to default to DMA consistently.
I remember reading that it was a XP SP2 bug..

[myleftlung]

Ohhh, how cool is this: http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20041113/index.html

[Sukebe]

overhead projector lightbulbs are relatively short life and moderately expensive

[joetron2030]

Originally posted by Aaron
I've had a similar problem on my computer. My DVD writer drive sometimes goes to PIO mode instead of Ultra DMA mode.
Might be something like that happening on your HD.

I had similar symptons, reboot and it would go back to Ultra DMA.

Check the settings in the IDE controller.

I had to change something in my bios to get it to default to DMA consistently.
I remember reading that it was a XP SP2 bug..

Hmm... I hadn't thought about that though it seems entirely possible. I'll have to run through my BIOS options again for the IDE controller.

[joetron2030]

For anyone interested in a sub-$500 notebook and aren't afraid of running Linspire (Linux desktop OS), you might want to check out Wal-Mart:

http://news.com.com/Wal-Mart+debuts+...l?tag=nefd.top

[cabbagechild]

...

a cd-rom (!) drive? for what you actually get, 500 bucks is not that cheap.

i think that the dell laptops with cd-rw, etc. etc. goin for 750 is a lot better deal. if that deal is still going.

[BAOH]

Originally posted by jskang
For anyone interested in a sub-$500 notebook and aren't afraid of running Linspire (Linux desktop OS), you might want to check out Wal-Mart:

http://news.com.com/Wal-Mart+debuts+...l?tag=nefd.top

oh man, linspire is so cheese.

i wonder if it's possible to just blow it out and slap BSD on it or something.

[joetron2030]

I don't see why it wouldn't be. Heck, if you really wanted to, you could dump it and install Windows on it. ;-)

[stryfe]

gag

[stryfe]

i think it has crabs.

[cabbagechild]

ok, a laptop i'm using has a dvd-rom drive but no program to play/decode dvds. i tried playing the dvd in windows media player but no go.

can someone tell me of a relatively small (i.e. megabit-light) free dvd program i can dl? i say 'small' cause i'm leeching off someone else's bandwidth now and don't want to alert them of what i'm doign thru heavy downloads...

thanks.

[kamenriderv3]

i never had a problem with windows media 9 playing dvd discs. even ripped dvd files from dvdcrypt.

is the region matching?

[cabbagechild]

Originally posted by slackerbot
Windows Media Player 10 plays DVD's now. download it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...0/default.aspx

it's 11 megs. do you think the person i'm leeching from will notice?