Computer Tech Support

[Dyllan]

I don't know what else to tell you. I have no idea why it would keep putting files in an IE 5 folder.

-Dyllan

[Louann]

Originally posted by Dyllan
I don't know what else to tell you. I have no idea why it would keep putting files in an IE 5 folder.

-Dyllan

Isn't there any way to ask Microsoft directly without paying for a phone call? Do they reply to emails?

[Dyllan]

I don't think they do. Of course, you could try searching the knowledge base for information - but it is rather hit and miss. You can get to the knowledge base from their support page.

-Dyllan

[Louann]

I installed the 2nd hard drive, but can't get things right. I have had to disconnect it because I'm pretty sure it's a jumper problem. When it rebooted, it said "detecting IDE drives" and it took a long time to finally show the results, and then said I had no primary drive, only a slave. The original drive had the jumper on the bottom prongs between one for master and one for slave, so I moved it to the full master positition. When that didn't work, I tried the primary drive on CS. When I rebooted and hit DEL to enter BIOS, it gave me a CMOS page that asked for a password. I tried the only password I was given, by Comcast, but there aren't enough spaces for the whole word. And the computer manufacturer never gave me a password. So I was stuck. I had to turn it off to get out because even Exit wouldn't work to get out of CMOS.
You had 2 jumpers on the drive I bought from you, one on Slave and one on CS, so my sis suggested I remove the one from CS. When I did that and put the original drive on Master, neither of the drives were found!
I'm sure all the cables were connected tightly, so I'm very confused. What do I do now? I even tried both on CS, hoping the PC would figure out that the original drive was the master because the connector closer to the motherboard was on it.
To get computer function back, I had to unplug the ribbon cable and power cord from the second drive and reboot.
I knew something like this would happen. Nothing is easy for me!
How would I find out my password, or get around having to put it in to check CMOS?

[Dyllan]

You might try making the new drive master and the original slave - you can still assign either to be C or D regardless of whether they are master or slave.

But troubleshooting options are limited without getting into the bios. There's really only one way to get past a bios password - reset the bios. The problem with that is that you lose any settings your bios has. If you decide to do it though, you'll need instructions for your motherboard. Most motherboards have a jumper on the board that you can set to reset the bios - just put a jumper (perhaps the extra one from that hard drive - I sent you two just in case you needed the second one for your primary drive) on whatever two pins the instructions tell you to and reboot.

If you can't find instructions for your motherboard, you could try calling Comcast (I gather they are the ones who provided your computer). If they can't help, look for a serial number on your motherboard - it's usually printed directly on the main board, not on one of the chips attached to the board - and do a search for it in google. With any luck you'll be able to find out who made the board that way. Then go to that company's web site and look for instructions for your board. If you can't find them, email the company.

Also, I can't remember off hand if the drive I gave you had multiple slave and master settings. Some drives will have a 1 jumper setting and a 2 jumper setting for each. If it does, the settings will be listed on the top of the drive. If there are two jumper settings for that drive (or for your original drive) try them.

-Dyllan

[Louann]

Comcast didn't give me the computer. It was originally built in CA by Cyberpower, but when it overheated right before I bought the hard drive from you, I had a new motherboard put in locally and they gave me a really detailed user manual. So I doubt I'll have trouble resetting the BIOS, I just couldn't get past the step asking for a password. My sister sent me this info last night:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]
So later today I will reboot and if it still asks for a password, I will try one of the listed ones till I get in.
Do you think all I have to do is set BIOS to auto detect IDE Master and Slave, and then when I reboot with both hard drives installed properly, it will find them with no problems, and that could have been it all along and not how I had them jumpered?
ABout the jumper settings, the drive said it could have one or two jumpers on it, and the way you had it set was correct for the 2 jumper position. I can see the words written on the circuit board side, and there are 2 prongs on the left with nothing written by them, so I don't know what they are used for. The middle set is Master, then Slave, and the far right is CS.


__________________

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]

[Dyllan]

I don't know if that will fix the problem or not. Without seeing your current bios settings it is impossible to tell if they are causing the problems. Once you get into the bios, it should be fairly obvious if the drive settings are wrong - both should be autodetecting.

If you have further problems, it could be a drive conflict (though if I remember correctly, both drives are the same brand, so that isn't very likely). In any case, one other thing you can try is putting one of the drives on your secondary IDE controller. Depending on your specific hardware, there is a chance this will slow down the drive access speed if that controller has your CD-ROM on it, but that is usually only a problem on very old CD-ROMs.

-Dyllan

[Louann]

I called the last place I took it in, and he told me to try 1234 for the BIOS password and it worked!
BIOS already was set to auto detect IDE for master and slave, so that was a worthless effort.
I looked at other stuff while I was there tho, and have a side question . I can set it to go off if it is overheating,
but they have that disabled. Should I enable it? Current system temp was 77. My options are to shut down at
158, 167, 176 or 185. Opinion?
I tried switching the jumpers so 1st drive was slave, and 2nd master. On boot up, it couldn't find either drive.
I jumped them back the other way, and moved the 2nd drive (slave) to the ribbon cable attached to the DVD
Rom. When I rebooted, it took a long time to find anything, then said I had a primary master drive, and a
secondary master DVD. There were no slaves on either cable. :-( Even worse, it then told me the primary
master had a hard disk failure - "primary IDE channel no 80 conductor cable installed". So the computer
wouldn't work with the 2nd drive attached to the DVD even tho the original hard drive was jumped to master.
So I disconnected the 2nd drive completely, and my system still wouldn't work till I moved the jumper from
master to CS. Looks like there was a reason the jumper wasn't on master when I bought the computer.
Now what? What is an 80 conductor cable? A jumper isn't a cable, but that error message disappeared when I just moved the jumper from M to CS.

[Dyllan]

Have you tried setting both drives to CS? Usually CS only works correctly if all drives on that cable are set to it.

As for the 80 conductor cable, I'm sure that was referring to the ribbon cable, as it is an 80 pin cable (therefore it conducts 80 bits of data at a time, presumably... though 80 conductor cable is an odd way to refer to it). I'm not sure exactly why it gives that kind of error when set to master without a slave, but I have seen it before. Most drives don't like to be set to master unless there's another drive connected.

-Dyllan

[Louann]

Originally posted by Dyllan
Have you tried setting both drives to CS? Usually CS only works correctly if all drives on that cable are set to it.


-Dyllan

Yes, I already posted that the other day.

[chippers21]

Here is an annoying problem I have...simple but annoying. I am unable vote in any of the polls at DOD. I am able to post here all the time, but when I try to vote in a poll I get a message that I am not allowed to do so.

[freesurfer]

How come at home, my games page here doesn't show as many pages as at another computer? I know it has to do with Cache right? How do I fix that, and is there any way to clear out my password (which I forgot) to enable well see this post from me...

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]


__________________

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]

[mango4]

Dyllan,
I have Windows 98. Every time I download a program on my computer, a new icon appears on my desktop for quick access to that program. I now have SO MANY icons that it looks cluttered. Many of the programs are ones that I do not often access. How can I get rid of the icon from the desktop without deleting the program?
Please help!
Thank you!

[cdavo]

Originally Posted by Dyllan

I work in Internet Tech Support, build my own PCs, things like that.

If you have any technical questions (assuming they're not keeping you from getting online) just ask me here.

-Dyllan

I play Pogo Pebble beach golf on 3 other computers that I use. On this one, I instantly get a "browser/service error" as soon as I log on. It tells me to "submit a bug" which I have no idea how to \do that. I've tried uninstalling & reinstalling Java many times but no success. Any suggestions?

[katlnhats]

Originally Posted by mango4

Dyllan,
I have Windows 98. Every time I download a program on my computer, a new icon appears on my desktop for quick access to that program. I now have SO MANY icons that it looks cluttered. Many of the programs are ones that I do not often access. How can I get rid of the icon from the desktop without deleting the program?
Please help!
Thank you!

Hi Mango,
Are those icons on your desktop or are they shortcuts? A shortcut will have a little arrow next to it and the icon won't. If it's just an arrow, delete it. You'll lose nothing and can always make another shortcut if you want to...

Kat