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Are there other factors besides writes that affect the SSD Life Left SMART flag? I had a sudden surprise last night when I RDP into my Windows 7 Pro machine that I use Media Center for recording TV, Steam Game Streaming to my TV and a few other things. There was a an error saying Windows...

I have been having problems with my cable internet for 3 months. Something changed around 3 years ago and twice a year in late spring and late fall when the temperature starts to change, I start getting frequent my disconnects. I have to call to report the outages, someone comes out and take...

For the several months I've been having constant issues with my internet connection crapping out and I have to call and report it every 2-3 weeks. The problem started back in January when a storm knocked down some utility polls that left me without power and internet for 3 days. They finally...

I wasn't sure whether or not this should go in cases or water cooling, but since I'm going to have to modify my case one way or another, I figure this is the best place. I bought a Corsair 100R Silent Edition for my new build. I've had limited time to work on it, but basically I've had it all...

My HTPC still runs Windows 7 and Media Center, for now, but I've upgraded my other PCs to Windows 10. I share the Recorded TV directory on the HTPC, and used Windows 7 Media Center on the other PCs to be able to watch recorded shows from it. Is there any software that I can use on Windows 10...

I have two Win7 machines and both started doing this Tuesday. One is my main desktop/gaming machine, the other is a mix of a Media Center and home server. They're both setup different as to how and when they update. On my desktop I have it set to notify me of updates (which it stopped doing...

I posted in another topic about how my software Blu-ray player no longer supports some new DRM and wouldn't play a new movie. Rather than spend $80 on new Blu-ray software, I'm considering picking up a stand-alone Blu-ray player. I'm looking at a few for under $80. My monitor has the typical...

My HTPC's drive has been running 24/7 for 3.5 years. I decided to go ahead and replace it due to its age, so I picked up a WD 3TB drive. In order to be able to use the full 3TB I also got a 64GB SSD to put Windows on and boot from because it needs to be formatted as a GPT drive, and I can't...

Is there a good way to check an SSD before using it to make sure it's not defective? With traditional HDD I've always taken a few days to test the drive before putting it to use. I start with the SMART self tests, then do a simple surface scan, then use a program like badblocks to write a...

My monitor is dying, and I don't think it's going to last much longer. I don't know if the backlight is going out or some other electronics inside, but a few days ago I noticed I was no longer seeing the POST screen when I turned the computer on. Each day it's taking longer for it to come on...

A couple of days ago I bumped my glass and some liquid sloshed out before I grabbed it. It landed in the upper right of my Eee 901's keyboard. I turned the netbook over so the liquid poured out at that same corner. The next day the keys in that upper corner were a little sticky, but...

Last year I bought a ZyXEL NBG381S Powerline kit for on sale for $40. I had been using two Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 (802.11g) routers with Tomato firmware with one in bridge mode, but after getting an HDTV and HD channels, it wasn't quite fast enough to stream HD shows. The ZyXEL gear was easy to...

In my bedroom I have my cable modem, router (Buffalo WHR-HP-G54), a PC and a netbook. On the opposite end of the house I have an HTPC and another PC. I currently have a 200Mbps HomePlug power line network adapter connecting the two rooms together. It works good enough. I get 50Mbps actual speed...

I have a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-2250 card, and I just have basic analog cable, which also gets me the local digital HD broadcast stations on ClearQAM. Two of the channels I record shows on became unreliable (bad signal or no signal at all). Now for about the past month those two channels no longer...

I'm building a new HTPC, but it's giving me lots of problems. Of all the computers I've built, this is the smallest, and has been the biggest pain in the ass. First I had trouble with the TV tuner and Media Center. As soon as I sorted that out, the PSU crapped out on me. I had an ATX PSU...

Is there a standard for the shape/size/mounting of Mini-ITX PSU's or are you stuck with what comes in your case? I built a new Media Center system using an Atom 330 based ZOTAC IONITX-F-E board. Other components in the system are: 4GB RAM 2TB WD Green DVD Drive Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250...

My monitor (LG L227WTG) supports HDCP, so when I built my new system I decided to get a Blu-ray drive with it. The video card is a Geforce GTX 260. I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with Forceware driver version 195.62. My drive came with PowerDVD 7, but I downloaded the trial version...

On my old PC, the DVD drive for a while would take two or three tries to get it to eject. When you push the button you here the drive make a noise like it's trying to push the tray out but it's stuck on something. Lately it began getting harder to open, but I started to notice that when there...

I'm about to order parts to build a new HTPC and also upgrade my desktop. The HTPC is going to be all new. I mostly use it for recording TV and some DVD playback. My 30-year old TV is on it's last, um electron. I've been putting off getting a new TV for a while, so I'll be upgrading that so...

I skipped Vista, so I'm coming from using XP for however long that's been out. I bought Vista way back when CompUSA went out of business for $50. I had planned to install it after I upgraded some stuff in my system, but everything was running fine and I just didn't feel like starting over...

I just installed the batch of updates released Tuesday on my MCE machine, and when I went to watch some TV on it, I was greeted with: The MS KB article on this error said to reinstall .NET 1.1 SP1 and then reinstall the MCE 2005 Rollup 2. I reinstalled .NET 1.1 SP1, but the Rollup 2 update...

I just recently put a small UPS on my HTPC system. I managed to get an old but new, unopened APC 500VA UPS. In the HTPC's BIOS, I have the option set to return to previous state after a power failure. That worked fine before it was plugged into a UPS. Now that it's on the UPS, I have it set...

I have a CyberPower CP1200AVR UPS that I bought in 2005. I can count on one had the number of times the power has gone out since I've had it. I usually wait about 5 minutes and shut down if the power hasn't come back on, otherwise I shut it down immediately if I know the power won't be back on...

This has been frustrating me for a while now. I don't recall exactly when it started doing this, but it's been a month or two at least. Windows remembers the size and location of every window except the Network Places and the Recycle Bin. I have done a search for this problem, but only...

We had a power outage Monday and when the power came back on (almost 12 hours later), my HTPC wouldn't power up. I suspected it was the PSU after unplugging everything except the MB and it did power up. I dug through my box-o-parts and the only PSU I could find was an old 250W. The PSU in my...

We've had three power outages in less than a week, on days when the weather was clear, and all occurring around the time a show I record comes on. I don't watch or record that much TV either. The last power outage lasted for almost 12 hours. While the power was out I had an idea of using a...

Directron.com has the EeePC 901 12GB XP in white or black on sale for $369.99. Use coupon code "SUPER300" to take $7 off, or if you're a new customer you can qualify for $10 off (see details).

I'm still using an ASUS Eee 701 4G. I'm ready to upgrade to a newer one. I've looked at all of the current models, and was almost set on getting a Samsung NC10. However, after seeing a size comparison of the NC10 sitting next to an Eee 701, the NC10 is much bigger than I thought. I really...

The mouse wheel on my G5 (1st gen) has not been responding to scrolling. I figured it was like an old MS ball mouse I used to have, where some lint would get stuck between the sensor and the wheel. I used to have to take that mouse apart every week or so because the slightest speck or dust or...

I've been using Avira Antivir since I accidentally downgraded from AVG 7.5 to AVG 8. I went to perform a system scan, but when I first tried to update it, I get the error: "No valid license file available." On the status page it says "PersonalEditon Classic License, valid 11/30/2008. I...

I just bought a VisionTek HD 4870 last friday. Before installing the new card, I uninstalled the NVIDIA display drivers for my old card. I shut down and installed the new card. When I turned on the machine, there was no video at all. I thought I had done something wrong, but then I noticed...

I watch DVD's on my PC because I have a better screen and sound setup for it than I do in my living room. I've been using Intervideo WinDVD 7 for a while. When I built my current system, it came with an OEM of WinDVD 6 (2 channel audio only), and I was able to get the upgrade price for WinDVD7...

I have a $200 promo gift card from Dell which is about to expire, so I need to use it soon. I can't think of anything I would need to buy from Dell except a new monitor. Any recommendation on which 22" monitor is best that is available from Dell (doesn't have to be Dell brand)...

I have been using AVG Free for years now, and it's served me well, but I upgraded to AVG 8 the other day and I can't stand it. They ruined it. :mad: It wont let me re-install AVG 7.5 either. AVG 8 installed something like 4 windows services and one startup item, and if you disable any one of...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick I did this with 7.10 and the USB stick worked just like the CD, but I can't get 8.04 to work right. After I follow those directions, when I boot the USB stick, I get a text based boot: prompt instead of the graphical boot screen...

I've been shopping for a new notebook for over 6 months now. Here's a short summary of what I need and looked at. I'm want something that is lightweight (~4lbs), portable (12-13"), long battery life (4+ hours), and with dedicated graphics. I have a little over $1000 saved up for a new notebook...

Nevermind. ;)

Tomato v1.08 was released yesterday, quickly followed by v1.09 to fix a bug. http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato/

I've been having problems off and on since July. I'll try to sum up everything I've done as best I can remember. I posted here back when it first started in this thread. After I thought I solved the problem it eventually came back. The error message still refers to \Device\Harddisk0\D, not...

Ok, I've been racking my brain trying to pick a new notebook. I think I have finally made my my mind. I think I'm going to go with the Dell Latitude D630. I was thinking about the XPS M1330, but it's a little more than I want to spend. I want a light, portable notebook, and the M1330 wins...