For that setup, 400 watts should be plenty. Fortron Source is my favourite PSU maker right now -- their Blue Storm series offers Enermax quality at an Antec price.
Well, I e-mailed the other person who I've been working on this computer. More or less, he agrees with everything we've been over, although...
Case: He likes the one you suggested, though he thinks a Lian Li PC-61 might be better. Cheaper, to be sure.
PSU: He agrees with your Fortron assertion, mentioning that it should have dual 12V and a PCI-E Connector. Well, I've narrowed that down up to the PCI-E connector, which kinda has me a little confused. Is that what Newegg labels as "SLI support"? I mean, there are three there with such a feature, so it's not a huge deal, but, you know, better safe than sorry.
For "ultimate power", though, he suggests a Silverstone SST-ST50EF.
Vid Card: He actually suggests a 6600 GT for $50 cheaper if I'm upgrading in a few months, although if I want the extra power now, he says whichever out of the 7600GT or X800s are cheaper. Well, for under $200, there are plenty of 7600GTs, and a few Radeon X800XLs... Looks like I'll need a coin.
Case: He likes the one you suggested, though he thinks a Lian Li PC-61 might be better. Cheaper, to be sure.
Lian-Li makes fantastic cases and I had no idea they offered anything for less than $200. You can't go wrong with that one, although the P180 probably has more features.
PSU: He agrees with your Fortron assertion, mentioning that it should have dual 12V and a PCI-E Connector. Well, I've narrowed that down up to the PCI-E connector, which kinda has me a little confused. Is that what Newegg labels as "SLI support"? I mean, there are three there with such a feature, so it's not a huge deal, but, you know, better safe than sorry.
All of Fortron's Blue Storm power supplies have dual 12v rails and the PCI-E connector, which is just a floppy-drive power cable. "SLI Support" probably just refers to it having enough juice to power an SLI system.
Speaking of which, he mentioned "Sparkle", saying it was by the same people (Fortron Power Source), and that if it was cheaper, I should probably get it. Care to elaborate, perhaps?
I think I'll just get the 7600 GT. Probably an eVGA, Newegg has some deal where I get a free copy of Ages of Empires III with one... not that I'd play it, though. Well, I might, if it's free... but still, I figure eVGA's probably a safe bet - they seem to be popular enough. Sure, I may be sorely disappointed at it's un-1337 Oblivion skills (should I ever get around to Oblivion - my Dad only has the 360 version, though, so I'd have to go out and buy it), but that'll probably play up the sheer power of whatever DX10 card I wind up getting. Whenever that will be. Besides, we're talking a Radeon 9250 here. It'll be some kind of quantum leap, I'm sure, just like said Radeon was a quantum leap from crappy Intel integrated graphics.
So, really, all that's left is scrounging up a few extra hundreds, and since Weis is working my butt into the ground this week (21 hours! seems like a new record for me - and how fitting that it comes when AP tests do!), that shouldn't be a very difficult thing to do. Who knows, I might have enough dough left over to get a game with it. Like Painkiller or the DVD edition of Quake 4 (because I don't have Quake II yet, although I... er, acquired Quake [1] through other means...). Or maybe Episode 1, though that doesn't come out until June... Aw, to heck with it, I'll just buy New Super Mario Bros. and call it a day. 😛
Speaking of which, he mentioned "Sparkle", saying it was by the same people (Fortron Power Source), and that if it was cheaper, I should probably get it. Care to elaborate, perhaps?
Sparkle is Fortron's lesser line of power supplies. I recommend sticking with Blue Storm boxes, as the Sparkles supply less current and just aren't as well-built. I don't trust them, anyways.
Something like this, then? 500W, but, I dunno, the extra 100W might make it more future-proof or something. Still not planning on SLI-ing any time soon, but I dunno how power-hungry PCI-E cards can get. Hell, I don't know know power-hungry ANY of the PC gets, which is why I'm utterly clueless about PSUs.
Alright, that should cover the computer... unless there's any special fans or some such I should know about. A new monitor'd be nice, too, but later. MUCH later. I'd rather have the computer running right now. THEN I can work on getting off this cramped 1024x768 and back onto my older, more traditional 1280x1024. CRT or LCD, widescreen or not, I don't really care, as long as it's capable of significantly bigger resolutions than 1024x768, which is this monitor's max. (Needless to say, I'm using a rather old LCD monitor - and only because my nice, somewhat newer CRT monitor died. It was quite the funeral.)
Something like this, then? 500W, but, I dunno, the extra 100W might make it more future-proof or something. Still not planning on SLI-ing any time soon, but I dunno how power-hungry PCI-E cards can get. Hell, I don't know know power-hungry ANY of the PC gets, which is why I'm utterly clueless about PSUs.
400 watts will be more than sufficient for your needs.
new monitor'd be nice, too, but later. MUCH later. I'd rather have the computer running right now. THEN I can work on getting off this cramped 1024x768 and back onto my older, more traditional 1280x1024.
Flat panels, you can get some 19" models for almost nothing these days. I recommend the Samsung SyncMaster 940B, the Acer AL1916W, or the BenQ FP202W. If you want to go for something a little more enviable, keep an eye on gottadeal.com in the monitor section and wait for Dell to put their sextastic 2007WFP on sale. It's a 20" widescreen with a crapload of inputs, height adjusting pivot stand, portrait and landscape modes, picture-in-picture, and more. They put it on sale for about $400 every once in a while.
Whatever you get, make sure the pixel response is under 12ms.
Getting off my lazy ass again. So, this one, then. 400W, 24-pin, FSP, etc, etc. Hopefully it'll work and that's all I'd need to worry about it.
And I like the Dell monitor. Seems to be on sale right now, too.
ED: Another minor snafu. I've decided to go for this hard drive, but it appears that Newegg doesn't do retail Western Digital HDs (only OEM), meaning that it won't be coming with any cables. Is this an issue? Oh, and apparently it's a pain to get XP to recognize SATA drives, too; hopefully not that much of a pain...
can i ask for what might be software help here?
because my computer had started to freeze up as frequently as a few months ago, plus it's started to 'lag' (everything pauses for a few seconds while the computer makes that growly loading noise). i can't scandisk or defrag my computer and there don't appear to be any viruses or spyware on my computer.
Another minor snafu. I've decided to go for this hard drive, but it appears that Newegg doesn't do retail Western Digital HDs (only OEM), meaning that it won't be coming with any cables. Is this an issue?
No. Your motherboard will come with at least two cables. Buying retail-boxed stuff when you can get OEM is dumb. Cables are cheap, so get as much OEM stuff as you can.
Oh, and apparently it's a pain to get XP to recognize SATA drives, too
Not that I've noticed, and I build computers for a living.
Fair enough. That concern's relatively squashed, then.
Now, what would be a good firewall / virus-scanner to install on the computer before I hook it up to the 'net? Obviously, I'll be using my old XP Home install (whether that's legal or not) and updating it to SP2 with a burnt CD once that's all said and done, so I'll have a firewall. Still, I should probably get something a bit better - my parents insist on McAfee, but I'm not so sure, personally.
Considering my graduation party's this coming Monday, I might start getting parts soon. Who knows, I might have this computer built before mid-June.
Quote:
Obviously, I'll be using my old XP Home install (whether that's legal or not)
Uh, good luck activating it then...
On the subject of antivirus, AVG Free is quite spiffy:
As for a firewall, Kerio Personal Firewall used to be my favorite, but they discontinued the free version a while back. I don't know if you'd want to use a discontinued and unsupported program, but it's still available from here:
www.softpedia.com/get/Sec...wall.shtml (says it's a trial, but that's only for the Pro features, it goes into free mode with most features still available after 30 days)
i've been using zonealarm for my firewall for some time now, and have had no problems with it. (plus it's free, w00t)
AVG is getting pretty crappy pretty fast. I'm still looking for a new one.
~Rico
What's wrong with AVG? It hasn't given me any trouble.
God knows it beats the everloving crap out of Norton.
Well, we've started to order parts... sort of. Actually, it's just the Dell monitor you linked to. Still, better than nothing.
Yep, as soon as I figure out how I'm going to pay for all this (it's not that I don't have the money, it's more that I don't know how to move it from my checking account to a website - and I'm not sure that just checks would work), I'll probably get around to ordering the actual parts I'd have this thing ready for the next UT. Maybe a little late for HL2:Ep1 (comes out tomorrow), but close.
From what I've been told the PC version Norton requires a gaming system to run if you plan on running anything else. Unless they've lower the amount of ram it hordes then Cycle is right on AVG kicking its ass.
I'm not say AVG sucks, but I do know norton corporate pulled off things AVG didn't get a sniff off. Then again even the little norton corp client takes 32megs of RAM. Then home version uses even more.
~Rico
From what I've been told the PC version Norton requires a gaming system to run if you plan on running anything else.
You need a goddam SGI visualization cluster to run Norton, and even then you'll still notice it taking a minute longer to boot. And may God help your pathetic soul if you ever try to uninstall the thing.
Norton buries itself deep within Windows' plumbing, and just about every time I've used it it has eventually become screwed up somehow, spitting out error messages. Pretty much the only way to get it out cleanly is to wipe the hard drive and start over. In fact, I'd say I've had to do more drive wipes as a result of Norton crapping out than due to problems caused by the viruses it protects you against. AVG is solid enough, especially if you're a power user and don't spend any time on Kazaa Lite. I wouldn't prescribe it for my grandma, but it suits my needs just fine. Microsoft's Windows OneCare Live is pretty good too, but it's in beta and once it hits release it won't be free anymore.
Well, what about McAfee? I know you've said they're bad before, but my parents like to force that one on me.
McAfee makes AVG look flawless. It has all the problems of norton and has less protection than AVG.
~Rico
Just as a general notice, if you want to dualboot a beta operating system, namely Windows Vista, be sure to physically isolate (as in unplug) your XP drive from the motherboard, else Vista's installer will overwrite your master boot record. I just had to do a wipe because of this.
Alright, I have all the parts and stuff, sitting in my room, in several nice little piles. I'd have put them all together, but for some reason Mom won't let me. Prolly wants me to get some sleep, but alas, I lost way too much trying to get this tutorial working, only to find out that it DEMANDS Nero Burning Rom 6, which, incidentally, my trial version for ended at least a year ago. So, instead, I think I'll just install vanilla XP on there and try good ol' WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe on it. God forbid I connect the computer up to the 'net before SP2's on there, which seems to be what Microsoft WANTS me to do right now.
Anyway, I'm pretty confused over just what the heck Rico is suggesting I use for a virus scanner, but I think I'll just slap AVG and ZoneAlarm onto the CD I'm burning with installs for WMP10, Firefox, AdAware, and of course WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe. Could be a big mistake on my part, but, eh, I'd like to be protected before I think about putting HL2:Ep1 on here (which, naturally, means hooking up to the 'net), or updating drivers and what have you.
I'm also apparently installing Starforce on there from the get-go, but at this point, I don't really care that much. I know, I know, Starforce is teh evil, boycott all their products and stuff... but I wanted Trackmania Sunrise pretty badly, so I went ahead and got it. I'll see how it goes, there's probably ways to fix such a dumb move later on. I mean, I've had the first Trackmania for quite a while, and that was Starforce-protected, too (apparently), yet I've not noticed anything particularly bad happening on here (the old computer I'm replacing - goodbye, antiquated PCI-slots-only mobo, hello PCI-E...).
EDIT: Built, mostly. It doesn't have Internet connection or any usable USB slots (yet), but just about everything else fit in. XP Home's installed, but the CD I burned with SP2... didn't. Weird.
Some qualms, though:
Still, whether it's pointless or not (given that I may have to reformat over it all over again), I'm going to install some of the drivers onto here for now. It'll probably do it some good... and while I can't install Steam on there for a while (what's the point, no Internet access...), I can see if there's any game other than Half-Life 2 that'd run smoother on this new computer.
EDIT 2: Hard drive thing fixed. I got the tutorial I mentioned working (turns out Nero 7 demo works), so I repartitioned the thing with an XP boot CD with SP2 slipstreamed in - that fixed the 127GB problem, and now I have nearly 300GB, like I should. In fact, I'd say that's pretty much it, problem-wise. Just hook up the USB cords, then hook up some USB items, and we're set. Oh, and put the sides back on the case. Going on three days without those on might not be a good thing.
Then just port a damn lot of music files and files from other applications and what have you from my older computer... somehow. (I have an idea, actually. Might try it later.)
Refer to your mobo manual for information on the board's USB pin headers. They're located at various places on the motherboard for hooking up your case's external USB ports.
I made sure to. I'm pretty sure I hooked up everything alright, but it would appear NOT to be the case; putting in a flash drive just caused a whole lot of error balloons to pop up in the bottom right (well, okay, the same error balloon, just repeatedly), while my Xbox 360 controller, while not creating any real problems, wasn't functioning in Trackmania (for the record, it worked fine in the demo on my old computer).
Yeah, good thing I've yet to close this thing; I'll probably have to jump back on in. It could be worse, though.
So I got about 180 bucks I might speand on upgrading my PC. I'm currently runnin
AMD Athlon XP 2.400+
768 RAM
abotut 140 total gigs of HDD space, near full.
Radeon 9600 SE 128mb AGP card
Onboard audio
Fat flatscreen CRT moniter. Its nice and sharp.
So I'm thinking I'd upgrade the graphics card. One of the problems, apart from price, is that I think my mobo only has a AGP4x slot. It'll still be able to run AGP8x cards, right? Just.. a lot worse or something?
I'm choosing between XFX GeForce 6800 Xtreme (It doesnt have a VGA output so I'd have to buy a converter. Would this harm quality?Also I heard it's ungodly huge and might now fit.) or BFG GeForce 6800 GS. If there's somethign better for me, please recommend.
So, mates, would the upgrade in any of these cards be significantly noticable? Tired of running most things at low quality with 800x res. Thanks for reading that.
As a side note, sicne i have mear onboard audio, I was considering I might instead upgrade that. I'll pick up one of those newfangled Audigies *They run around 100, right* and some surround sound headphones, seeing as htough its impossible to set up surround speakers in my room. Any good surround sound headsets on the market?
Do you know what model your motherboard is? Sometimes an 8x AGP card will work in 4x motherboards, but it depends on what version of AGP they use. As for which graphics card you want, it depends on how much you want to spend. You might want to consider getting a new motherboard that supports 8x AGP, or even PCI-E.
After a quick look it seems you could buy an Audigy card for less than $70 quite easily, as long as you don't want one of the top ranged ones. Honestly, I don't know much about headsets.
So I'm thinking I'd upgrade the graphics card. One of the problems, apart from price, is that I think my mobo only has a AGP4x slot. It'll still be able to run AGP8x cards, right? Just.. a lot worse or something?
No. They use a different voltage.
(It doesnt have a VGA output so I'd have to buy a converter. Would this harm quality?Also I heard it's ungodly huge and might now fit.)
Usually videocards with DVI ports come with an adaptor. This will not harm your image quality. Also, any videocard should fit unless you have a very small case or something on your motherboard that is obstructing the area around the AGP slot.
As a side note, sicne i have mear onboard audio, I was considering I might instead upgrade that. I'll pick up one of those newfangled Audigies *They run around 100, right* and some surround sound headphones, seeing as htough its impossible to set up surround speakers in my room. Any good surround sound headsets on the market?
Audigy is out of style, man. It's all about the X-Fi. Creative's X-Fi Xtrememusic is probably the best bet on a budget. That way you won't even need to buy surround headphones -- just plug in a good pair of stereo cans and turn on the X-Fi's CMSS filter for virtual surround that is almost as good as having a 5.1 system.
Sweet deal.
So a X-Fi xtrememusic With a ~70 USD 3 piece (I need a subwoofer. Being a bassist I have a bass fetish.) would thrash the s**t out of my current audio setup? Which is onboard audio hooked up to a shoddy old $50 dollar set of altec lansing 5.1's, in which case onle the Center and front-right sats work well, I have to kick the subwoofer now and then to get it crankin', and the button on the remote fell of so I have to turn it on and off with a pen?
They're not as bad as I make 'em sound... So it's either the sound system or a Nintendo DS. I decided against a vid card cuz hearsay is you can't get a good one for under 200. I'm an extreme music fan, and I know just a little difference between sound system's can make the difference of The Wall sounding like "dude" or like "duuuuuude".
btw, be a doll and request a good 3 piece. thxthxthxxx.
So a X-Fi xtrememusic With a ~70 USD 3 piece (I need a subwoofer. Being a bassist I have a bass fetish.) would thrash the s**t out of my current audio setup? Which is onboard audio hooked up to a shoddy old $50 dollar set of altec lansing 5.1's, in which case onle the Center and front-right sats work well, I have to kick the subwoofer now and then to get it crankin', and the button on the remote fell of so I have to turn it on and off with a pen?
Oh yes.
btw, be a doll and request a good 3 piece. thxthxthxxx.
Let me introduce you to my friends: el cheapo, the working-class stiff, the enthusiast, and the saudi prince. Logitech builds very decent systems at a reasonable price, but they're generally lacking in the lower midrange and the very high end. Like Bose, only without the ridiculous pricetag. If you want a quality auditory experience, Klipsh is Das Scheisse.
Also, get a pair of good monitor headphones ($50+) for late-night sessions. Sennheisers are good, plus it's fun to heil and yell "Ein Sennheiser!" Personally I have a pair of Sony MDR-V500 DJ/remix cans, but they're not cheap. Comparable units from Sennheiser or even Koss are much cheaper. I only bought the Sony ones because I got a good deal.
I should also mention that AMD just dropped prices on all CPUs by a lot. We're talking 50% off. I just picked up an Athlon X2 4200+ for a mere $229 Canadian, where it was over $400 a month ago.
I posted the benchmarks here. The improvement is really noticeable in pure-math tests like XviD encoding.
Crap, they did. The 3800+'s like $150 cheaper than when I originally bought it two months ago.
Damn! Oh well, that's technology for you, I guess.
Mm, alright, the klipsh looks good and its about 140. A bit expensive, but cool.
And let me rephrase myself = when I meant "it's impossible to set up surround sound in my room" i meant its impossible to set it up effectively. I cant center myself where all the sats are where they should be. I'm closer ot the right than to the left, and the rear set is parellel with my head.
So I think 2.1's can offer real nice stereo sound.
Let me refer to this shoddy MS paint drawing=
So those ~120 dollar 2.1's can smack out just as much sound as similar priced 5.1's, right? Or would you recommend the 5.1's over your choices of 2.1's?
thxu
So those ~120 dollar 2.1's can smack out just as much sound as similar priced 5.1's, right?
Oh yes. Anything that says Klipsch on it will rock your face.
Or would you recommend the 5.1's over your choices of 2.1's?
If you are unable to set up a 5.1 system properly, then you're probably better off just getting a really nice 2.1 system. Besides, the X-Fi card has filters that will simulate surround sound.
I just got back from the third Penny Arcade Exposition in Seattle. On the last day Gabe and Tycho were doing autographs and, thinking quickly, I ran upstairs to the LAN room, pulled the side panel off my my computer, and brought it down hoping for a couple small signatures in the corner. Tycho was glad to oblige, but then Gabe asked me in a rather casual manner who my favourite character from the strip is, and when I told him (Charles) he scrawled him all over the thing.
You f--king rock, Gabe.
as we're lacking in a computer software thread and i don't want to make a new one, i'll post this here.
since two days ago my internet connection has been awful. i'm using win98 and a linksys usb wireless monitor to pick up my internet.
the signel is strong, i have no viruses or spyware on the computer, but the connection keeps dieing. consistantly. over and over. ox;
any advice, other then 'buy a new computer'? ^.x;
oh, and nearly all the icons on my desktop are covered in messed up pixels.. usually lines of red pixels going down them. i get random wrongly coloured pixels on my screen as well when my computer has had to have been restarted a few times. (although apprently this is common for flatscreen monitors)
is my graphics card dieing?
Edit: guess i should've made a new topic. noone has any advice at all on how to fix this?
Sorry, I didn't that someone had posted here. There could be a problem with your router. Try unplugging the router's power cord, then wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in.
oh, and nearly all the icons on my desktop are covered in messed up pixels.. usually lines of red pixels going down them. i get random wrongly coloured pixels on my screen as well when my computer has had to have been restarted a few times. (although apprently this is common for flatscreen monitors)is my graphics card dieing?
Probably. I can't think of anything else it might be. Update your video drivers and see if that helps. Or get a can of compressed air, take out the videocard, and have at the inside of the computer. Get as much dust out of there as you can, and be sure to do a thorough job of the slot the videocard was in. Also try cleaning the contacts on the videocard with isopropyl alcohol.
we restarted it yesterday, which helped for a few minutes before the troubles came back.
currently the internet is working, no problem at all. but earlier today i had to re-start twice before my computer wanted to pick up any signel at all. yesterday was awful, it refused to connect, and if it did, it would be for only a few seconds.
so i'm unsure if it is the router, but i'll give it a go tomorrow when my flatmate shan't complain at his lack of teh internets.
as for my monitor, hardily anywhere online seems to support win98, i find it hard to get updates now. i'll give it a go, if i can work out what my videocard is. ^^;
de-dusting would be good, it's a bit clogged up in there.
compressed air?
thanks, i'll see if i can get any cheaply. ^^
Edit: i bought a new wireless usb thingy, the internet is working with no problems now. ^.^;
A few questions.
1) Windows Media Player 10 has, lately, decided to play some WAV and MP3 files at twice the speed they should be playing at, and at a higher pitch, too. This is, of course, without me telling it to do so, and I really would prefer it NOT to do so, so it's rather annoying. WinAmp doesn't have this problem so I've been using it for a while, but I'd like to use WMP10 still (it has better MIDI support, and believe it or not I like using those). Thing is, I can't reinstall it (the installer swears up and down that WMP10 isn't compatible with my computer, despite installing perfectly when the thing was brand new), and the .dll fix I read about doesn't do much of anything. Any thoughts?
2) While we're at it, my "Open" dialog has decided to automatically sort to "Date Modified" for me without me telling it to (again). How do I fix it so that I can list things by alphabetical order, as I would prefer (since that's typically default, anyway)?
3) As you may know by skimming the topic, I have a sexy 2007WFP (even if sexier, 2047WFPs exist, although given how much space this monitor takes and how much space my desk has, this is as big as it'll get for me, thanks). It's widescreen (16:10), and I want to take advantage of that. Thing is, my setup, while it can handle games running at 1680x1050 without TOO much trouble, does, in general, tend to chug a little at that resolution on certain games (coughOblivioncough). Thing is, there's no widescreen options between it and 320x200 (which is obviously undesirable, unless I'm playing a DOS game or something, in which case, 320x200 away), barring one 16x9 option that's far too close to 1680x1050 to be of any particular use. Isn't there a way to add custom resolutions to Windows or something, so that I could run my games in widescreen AND have a good framerate, with all the bells and whistles? I don't want to have to play Oblivion letterboxed, see, but I don't want to be playing at 12 FPS (rough guess, I honestly dunno what it runs at), either. I know there are some risks involved here (add a resolution your monitor can't support, and kablooey! dead $300 monitor), but I figured that, since my video card is set up to scale all resolutions smaller than my desktop resolution (which stays firmly at 1680x1050, it's too convenient being this large) to best fit the screen whilst maintaining the source resolutions frame ratio, that it wouldn't be too big a deal; my video card would be upscaling the image to 1680x1050 anyway. Thoughts? Solutions?
i'm having strange problems with my graphics. some of the images on my desktop, such a folder icon, have got lines of red and other wrong pixels going up them.
occasionally my web browser (usually firefox, but I.E as well) will stop loading new pages correctly. i'll see the old page, but the image becomes like multicoloured anime speedlines when i move the window down. the new page sometimes appears if i scroll the window up and down, and i can make some images appear if i wave my mouse over them, text appear if i highlight it.
closing the browser and reopening it fixes it for a few page clicks, but then messes up again.
i updated my graphics card's..uh, update thing, off the internet, no change.
i'm having media player issues too. when i try to open a media player file on it, it'll say 'connecting' and then freeze. when i close the programme and try to re-start it, my computer refuses to even load media player again. i get the exact same problem with my DVD player.
a freind informs me that the exact same thing happened to him with his win98 pc, and he couldn't work out how to fix it. i'm hoping someone here can.
Make sure it isn't the monitor first: plug a different one in and see if you get the same errors.
It would be helpful if you could get your monitor and graphics card's specifications up as well. I can't promise I can help, but I'll at least try to get to the root of the problem even if I don't know how to fix it myself.
i'm using a hp pavilion f1723 monitor, and i'm not exactly sure what my graphics card is, as half the stuff in my computer is unmarked.
*checks her device manager* yamaha..? or is that my sound? >>;
i've yet to try a different monitor, i'll try that soon to see what happens.
The graphics card should be listed under "Display adapters" in the device manager.
forget above, i've been given a new computer from a freind. sadly i've now managed to break that as well somehow.
it's decided after two days of working to suddenly stop me from logging in, it's asking me to 'activate windows'. how do i go about this?
if it's asking for any validation codes, it's a second-hand computer.. i got nothing.
I'm pretty sure activating Windows is as easy as connecting the computer to the Internet and telling it to activate. This might involve a CD Key, so if it does, pester your friend.
Still waiting for some insight into my problems. (Seriously, nobody knows?)
i can't get online, it asks to be connected not by wireless. the computer's origional owner died recently, so asking his family for a CD might not be possible or tactful.
*chooses the option to bug her freind*
You can't use an Ethernet cable?
Also, they must not have had this computer for long... Windows' activation nagging tends to only happen for the first 30-or-so days of use, and usually it's taken care of WELL before that.
There should be an option to activate by phone if you can't use the internet method.
