Recent content by CalcProgrammer1

Similar thing happened to my old dv9700t (with nVidia 8600M GS). It could be one of two things: 1) GPU failure. The nVidia GPU's used in these laptops were notorious for being awful. They overheat and fail, causing either video corruption or total video failure. The solution is to replace...

VirtualBox can accelerate OpenGL on the guest OS but DirectX support isn't very good yet. It is experimental, and from my "experiments" it either fails or crashes the system. I run Windows as host and Linux as guest and everything is fine (Linux only uses OpenGL, OpenGL is accelerated...

I've been running non-stop SMP/2 GPU as long as I am in the dorms where there is no real power bill. The issue is the A/C is horrible so the PC will overheat the room and crash. I had to lower my OC settings but it seems to be running well again. I plan to continue throughout the summer as well.

I still have my 734n, leave it set up at home while I'm at college so I can use it as a torrent box...not a bad PC for that purpose. It stopped being useful for gaming years ago.

You take the side panel off first and then you will see a hard drive bracket. If it's like the 734n (which I have), there is a metal tab on the top of the HDD bracket. Press down on it then pull the drive forward, the cage rotates out of the computer and pulls out. It is not installed with...

I did the waiting game on the 5xxx cards, bought one 5870 at full price when I built the PC and instead of switching up to a 6xxx card I bought another 5870 on sale for CrossFireX. I can't say I'm at all disappointed, the setup is more than good enough to run most games at 3x1080p Eyefinity. I...

You have two computers, both with a DVI output? If the DVI to VGA adapter doesn't work on either it might be the adapter, but there isn't much to those adapters so I really don't see how they would get broken (there's no electronics inside, just wires). Make sure you start the PC with the...

Replace the video cable. I have a dv9000 as well and my video cable is messed up too. Instead of vertical strips though mine has glitchy colors that make the screen mess up and sometimes go completely out. You can buy new video cables on eBay for cheap (I need to buy one sometime as well) and...

Many motherboards do not have onboard video. Have you tried both DVI ports? Make sure the VGA cord is attached firmly to the adapter and the monitor. If the monitor has multiple inputs (my Dell monitors have HDMI, VGA, and DVI inputs) make sure you select the right one. Also if your graphics...

My music library is simple enough: /Music/FLAC/<Artist>/<Album>/<xx title>.flac I only have the FLAC header folder because I'm converting (not literally, redownloading/re-ripping/etc) all my old stuff to FLAC and I still have an old folder for stuff that I haven't found in FLAC yet...

I would go ahead and get a new graphics card (anything PCI Express, which is 99% of graphics cards these days, will work). Install it, if the graphics card has PCI Express power connectors (the 6-pin and 8-pin ones) make sure your power supply has those connectors. If it doesn't, make sure to...

Have to look on the inside, if the board is damaged it probably won't be easy to fix. If a cable came loose or a connector isn't lining up properly it might be an easy fix. Laptops do often use board-to-board connectors that could be pulled apart by a damaged case.

Yeah, my laptop has internal Bluetooth, desktop has USB, but the truth is that most internal Bluetooth modules are USB anyways, connecting to a USB header on the motherboard. It used to work fine on my desktop and just recently stopped working correctly.

I have a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard (Microsoft 5000 and 6000 models respectively) and an ASUS mini-Bluetooth adapter. While not my primary mouse and keyboard, I often use them when using my computer with the TV. It used to work fine, but lately Windows seems to be "forgetting" the devices...

I never use a wrist strap...pretty much all of my building has been done laying down on soft carpet, I just keep the boards off the carpet by setting them on their boxes/anti-static bags. If I feel like I have a lot of static I touch an outlet (the screw holding outlet faceplates on is ground)...