I'm pretty sure it's a transistor anyways; Big cylindrical thing sticking up with "F287 1500 6.3V" written on top. There's 10 of them and two (the 6.3V ones) seem to have exploded. I can try and take pictures if nobody knows what I'm talking about.

Is this fixable, and where would I buy a knew one? o_O

It's an XFX Geforce 9600 GT, by the way. And it still works, but my computer freezes when playing movies and games on occasion.

Thank you!

Computer info:

Windows XP, SP3, Avira AntiVir Personal

Pentium Dual 1.61Ghz, 1Gb RAM
Gigabyte Ga-945gcmx-s2 motherboard
Soundcard currently a Crystal (Cirrus Logic?) cs4280-cm.

Some time ago, a high-pitched, non-stop sound started coming out of my speakers. I thought it was my speakers at first; changed them and still the same thing. Then I thought it was my soundcard.

Now I've just got a new soundcard (cs4280-cm), got everything set, and tested it. Just when I hit play in a random song the same high pitched, constant sound started coming out. It only started when I played that song, but it didn't stop when the song stopped. The high-pitched sound volume is affected by Volume control, and it mutes if I mute.

So I changed soundcards and the problem remains. Any idea?

First of all, I would just like to state for the record that I do know how to turn on my laptop, however, getting it started in this case is more tricky than 'just push the on button'.

I recently tried to restore my computer to its original state from recovery discs (The reason for me doing so is a different story) I made when I first got it. I followed the instructions by restarting my computer with disc 1 of 3 in the machine, it then came to a screnn which gave me several options, one of which included the option I was looking for "system recovery" (or something like that, you get the picture). Anyway I clicked on this and after scanning it told me that it could not find any recovery discs or hardware and that I should insert some before trying this. "Strange" I thought, "but okay. Maybe it's on one of the other discs, I'll just push this eject button and try another one." I pushed the eject button several times and nothing happened, I held it in for over 10 seconds and still nothing. I then remembered that my laptop doesn't like to eject discs until someone is logged on. I then tried manually forcing the disc draw open which only resulted in me pulling the plastic cover for this part of my computer off.

Herein lies my problem. Everytime I restart my computer it loads to this screen and won't let me progress further until I have restarted to get rid of the problem, however when I restart it just goes back to this screen as it reads the disc and detects there's a problem (yet can't seem to find the disc when I need it to).

So does anyone know anyway to get the computer to start normally so I can log on and take out the disc? I assume this will involve a command promt or pushing one of the function keys during startup, however I have no knowledge of any of these as I'm a bit of a computer dunce at the minute (which may have been shown by this latest escapade) so any help would be gratefully appreciated.

I want to build my own website but don't know HTML. I hear there is some good 'drag and drop' website design software out there but i'm having a hard time figuring it out.

I checked a review page and they recommended, in order - Intuit Website Creator (59.88), Web Easy Proffessional (49.95), Web Studio (179.99)

It just seems to me that a good one would be a whole lot more expensive but the more expensive ones aren't as highly rated.

Anybody have experience with a good one and one that works for idiots?

When i recieve emails with certain attachments, they won't open, or it shows it's not even there (yet people have sent them). Microsoft Word seems to be the worst, and i have MW on my computer but when they are sent, they somehow revert to Word Document. And all the files i have saved in MW in My Documents, have changed to WD - even though they were saved in RTF. They were there one day, then changed the next.

I've tried sending files from my laptop to this PC (Windows XP) and they are converted and sometimes not able to open on the PC. I sent an attachment from my laptop in Excel, and it arrived as an Unknown File Type.

Anybody know what the heck is going on? Appreciate any help.

When I turned on my computer this morning I received a message saying windows had installed drivers for my new hardware and a floppy drive was showing up even though there is no floppy drive in this computer and the DVD drive was gone. I tried uninstalling the floppy drive in device manager and restarting the computer and it just keeps reappearing while my DVD drive remains absent. Also the DVD drive doesn't seem to be showing up in BIOS but I'm not sure if I'm looking in the right place. I was watching a DVD just before I shut down my computer last night so I know the drive was working and all I did this morning before this happened was turn the computer on so I know I didn't change any settings on accident. Can anyone think of anything that would cause this or is the drive maybe just defective? Thanks in advance for your responses

Heres my computer specs:
Windows 7 64bit
Motherboard: Asus P6T
CPU: Intel Core i7 920
DVD Drive: Samsung Super Writemaster

All that ever seems to be in the Gaming Arena are problems, so I figured I'd add a little cheer by introducing a good free game that recently came out. Feel free to skip straight to the link if you don't want to hear me ramble on.

The game is called Alien Swarm, it is a remake of the original Alien Swarm mod for Unreal Tournament '04 by Black Cat Games. Valve apparently hired the developers at Black Cat Games and these developers have been actively working on this remake on the side as they work on other games for Valve (Ex. Left4Dead 2).

This game is based on a new version of the Source Engine that could be the prototype for games such as Portal 2 and Half-Life 2 Episode 3. This game is a tactical top down four player co-operative shooter. This game much like Valves other games has achievements and has an SDK available to the community to mod the game (The SDK and game code are not the same as the original Source SDK so you cannot play/make normal Source mods using them). There is also a leveling system which unlocks new weapons.

since this game is free it comes with a modest seven level campaign and given to the community to add content as they like.

Rather than listen to me you can visit the Steam Store Page and check it out for yourself.

Here is the link - store.steampowered.com

PC only at the time of this post, though a Mac version could very well be in the works soon.

I have Microsoft Office 2007 Professional installed on my PC. The following programs, Outlook, Excel, Publisher and PowerPoint allow me to access the help icon but Word doesn't. When I click on the help icon I get the following message, "there are no help topics available that match your request" in a box headed with Microsoft Office Help Viewer. Why can I access help in all the other Office programs but not Word?

Hello, I am John, and I am computer illiterate.
but i dont want to be.

first question, how do i determine that there are other users....piggybacking on my wireless internet at home ?
I have internet via DSL coming into the home with Linksys wireless on my home computer, my wife and i each have a laptop which we tie into the wireless, but i want to know when or if anyone else is also using the wireless signal....

thanks

Hi what is the difference between Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection 14 HD, and Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD?

At the moment I am using Cyberlink Power Director which is OK, but makes the pictures blotchy and over sharp when I replay back through a DVD player. I notice it occasionally crashes, and also makes a horrible ‘white noise’ sound while I am editing it so I have to stop and give it a few minutes.

Which is the better programme? Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Collection 14 HD, or Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD?

Any advice would be most helpful. Many thanks.

hello, so my hard drive is having problems (internal hdd hard error) so I tried running spinrite from a flash drive. i got spinrite to work and ran a level 4. it got too 100% and then just froze. i couldn't press any buttons, and i left it on for about 12 hours hoping it would finish up but it didnt. i tried it again and after an hour i shut it off.

does anyone know why it stops at 100%? my computer's hard drive is still messed up so even though it got to 100% I'm guessing it couldn't fix it because it froze

thank you for any help!!!

I'd like a program to measure how much data is being sent/received from my PC. But google is being lame. Does anyone know of one?


For limited homes in Australia. We can get 120GB of data per Month for $50.
For nearly everyone else, we are stuck with something called cable internet. Faster than dial-up but not ADSL2 and cost $50 for 25GB.

The company that owns the wires in our streets will not put ADSL2 wires in and will not allow anyone else to do so. They have everyone hostage. No one else can offer people internet in the cable zones which is almost everywhere.

They have had their meters wrong before and this is why I want a measurer. They've capped me wayyyy before I thought I had downloaded that much.
/Rage

My UPS is not working at the moment and if the electricity runs out my PC would shut down incorrectly and unexpectedly.
I was wondering if I should put the computer in a sleep mode / hibernate mode [when I'm not working] so that when the electric power runs out, it won't cause the computer any damage even if it's shut down unexpectedly.
Does it help? Or maybe the power options are irrelevant to the electric power running out and an unexpected turn off would cause the same damage to the computer?

Tell me name of your favorite operating system.

I currently have a Dell Inspiron 530 with:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.80
Memory (RAM): 6.00 GB
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

I know I need to upgrade the video card and the power supply, but would that be it to run games like Starcraft 2 and Metro 2033?

I'd just like suggestions as to what I should upgrade to, with the costs of course. I don't really wanna cheap out and just run things at a bare minimum, but still, I'm not made of money.

Thanks.