gwsredin

I'm sure 95 % of you are running your system with one monitor. Primarily because that is the default for any computer. What if i told you that running your system with dual monitors or even triple monitors will increase your user performance extensively?

Ways it helps:
- can play some games while instant messaging, writing emails, watching movie on other screen, looking up something online, etc...
- Helps with working on websites or other programming, because code can be on one side, while the preview image is on the other monitor.
- Spreads the space out so you have more table top room, which allows you to use it more efficiently.
- Working on essays: you can have your word processor on one side and your source on the other monitor.

their are an exponensial amount of pro's to having dual/trip monitors.

this is how to get it working:

in order for all of this to work, you obviously need another monitor or a tv next to your computer.

Step 1:
- check your computer hardware guide to see what kind of graphic card your computer supports (AGP, or PCI).
- after checking which kind of port your computer offers buy a video card, a good place to do research for one is http://www.tomshardware.com/ and an excelent place to buy is http://www.newegg.com/
- Nvidia is better w/ dual monitors than Radeon are more effective w/ games.

Step 2:
- now that you have your video card, it's time to install it.
- Make sure your computer is turned off for this next step.
- take the case off of your computer and your motherboard manual should show you where the video card port is.
- it should click right in.
- after the hardware is installed into your computer, you now must instal the software required to run it.

Step 3: FOR A MONITOR
- plug the primary monitor into the video card monitor port, and plug the secondary monitor into the default computer monitor port.

Step 3:FOR A TV WITH SVIDEO
- if you don't have an svideo chord that can reach from your tv to your computer then buy one or move your tv closer.
- plug the chord into the svideo input in the video card, then plug the other end into the tv svideo input.

Step 3: FOR A TV W/OUT SVIDEO OPTION
- buy an Svideo --> RCA male/IN adapter, at radioshack and best buy they are about 20 dollars, but i bought one on ebay fro 99 cents w/out shipping.
- then plug the svideo chord to the svideo option in the video card panel, then plug the other end to the adapter, then the adapter to one of your rca inputs.

Step 4:
- turn on your computer, a prompt should come up saying your computer has revieled new hardware. put in the software installation cd, which should be included, if not go to the website of your video card manufacturer and download the driver for the specified video card.
- after the driver/software is installed install any extra required programs, i.e. upgraded directX version... restart your computer.

Step 5:
- both monitors should be working when the computer is rebooted. If not then right click on the desktop--> properties --> settings --> click on the video card monitor should be a little box w/ monitors, activate the check box that say "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor." if already activated, go to the other monitor.
- if there is only one monitor click "advanced" --> click the tab of the video card --> dual displays or display settings.

any questions just pm me or email me

thanks,
matt

There are several ways to erase the contents of a hard drive. But the technique you use will depend on what you want to use the hard drive for afterwards. For instance, if you just plan on reinstalling Windows, it isn’t necessary to do a Department of Defense level shredding of your data
 
Erase your hard drive for reinstalling Windows
In newer versions of Windows, you can simply boot to the Windows CD and during the setup process, tell Windows to delete the current partition and install on the new partition. This will wipe out what you already had and replace it with a fresh, shiny Windows installation. Brand name computers--such as Dell, HP, Compaq and Sony—will ship with a recovery disk. You can use that recovery disk in place of a Windows CD to format and reinstall automatically.

Erase you hard drive and sell it on Ebay
If you plan on selling the computer or hard drive on Ebay or even at a yard sale, you must use a shredding utility that will thoroughly erase the data on the hard drive. Actually, these programs write 1s and 0s over every sector of the hard drive several times so the data that had been there is most certainly gone forever. You can then reinstall Windows, if you wish. The problem with the first method is that even though the drive has been formatted, there are tools available that can recover the data that had been erased. Using a program like Darik’s Boot and Nuke (or DBaN) will make that data unrecoverable.

Discarding a dead hard drive
If your computer has failed and the hard drive is no good, you must destroy the hard drive before tossing it in the trash. Sophisticated tools can be used to recover the data on hard drives that no longer work. If you plan on recycling the computer or putting it in the landfill (shame on you), you have to remove the drive and carefully destroy it by whatever means necessary. You can remove the platters by opening the hard drive shell. Whether you plan on drilling holes in it, smashing it with a hammer or driving over it with your car, be sure to wear protective goggles and gloves.
 
So there are different reasons for erasing your hard drive and different methods based on those reasons. You can find hard drive utilities on our Software Downloads section or contact us on our forums for more advice on how to handle data on your hard drive.

Seems like that your PC Specs just little below the minimum Specs for POP : Forgotten Sands.

Here is the System Requirements for POP Forgotten Sands.
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

You CPU and RAM meets the minimum requirements (1 GB RAM meets minimum requirements but only if you have Windows XP, for Windows Vista and 7 you require 2 GB of RAM). But your GPU (Graphics) does not seems to meet the criteria of minimum requirement.

It is not listed in the supported Cards list on the system requirements page and also it does not seem to have Pixel Shader v3.0 which is the minimum requirement for the game.

And even if you are able to match the minimum Requirements for the game, the minimum requirements is just enough to run the game but it is not necessary that you would get good performance.

For recommended requirements you require 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo Processor or better and 2 GB RAM for WIn XP and 4 GB for Vista and 7 along with 512 MB of dedicated GPU (Nvidia or ATI dedicated cards) with pixel shaders v3.0 and Direct X 9.0c support or better.


You could try to upgrade your PC if you want to run this game with good performance or you should try it on any other PC which has better config.

Also you could try 3D Analyser which seems to run a few games on low spec PCs even when the system requirements do not match.
3D Analyser : http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Although most of the times 3D Analyser has not seemed to work for me as 3D Analyser tries to remove the features from the Game that require the high system specs and this results in not working of the game eventually most of the times. Still its worth a try if you can run it better using it. Just google for "How to run Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands using 3D Analyser".

A little bit history.
 
Long, long time ago, a Personal Computer (today named a PC) was sold together with the operating system media (MS-DOS, then Win95, then Win98, Win Millenium, Win XP). At this moment, standard home users felt themselves somehow lost, but skilled people knew that they had to partition the hard disk in order to smartly install the operating systems.
Today, the home PC’s are usually sold with the operating system pre-installed. The computer is ready to use, which is a good point for newbies, but most of the settings are not the best choice for a further safe use.
 
What we will do today.
 
As it has been delivered pre-installed, the computer can be used immediately. However, with this initial setup, you have no chance to correctly perform a backup.
Two different types of backup are necessary for a smart user : a backup of your data, for instance on a removable media (USB disk or DVDRW); and a backup of the operating system.
A backup of your own data has to be done frequently : the pictures you removed from your camera and stored on your PC should not disappear if your PC receives a virus.
This operation is usually very fast, because your real data do not use a lot of space on your computer. And the movies you have already seen can be moved to an external drive.
A system backup has to be done each time you do a change to your system, typically once a year. A system backup copies the whole system disk to a removable media, in order to restore the operating system from the backup media.
 
If everything is on a single disk (typically the “C:” disk) you have to backup the whole C: disk, on a bootable media, which takes a huge amount of time.
That’s why we will split your physical disk into several partitions, in order to have a small system partition having only the operating system and your installed software, and a data partition which will have all your personal data.

The recovery media.
 
If when ordering your computer you did not purchase the recovery media, before touching anything, you should create the recovery media.
There is a somewhere menu for that, usually the click sequence is start, all programs, recovery media. The recovery media can be a USB flashdisk or a DVD.
I had a DVD burner attached to my PC, so I created recovery DVD’s. This operation needed four blank DVD’s. Now, in case of trouble, I should be able to restore the system to it’s manufactory settings. Be careful, restoring the manufactory settings will destroy the whole disk, erasing all your personal data. This is only the “last chance” rescue disk.

First of all, backup!
 
Now start the real job. Before touching anything, the first thing is to create a backup of your system disk. In case of trouble, you will be able to restore your system to it’s current poing.
For instance if you install something bad, or you removed an essential software you absolutely need, simply restore your c: disk.
I used Clonezilla (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ ), the free system backup I recommend to everybody. Download the iso file, burn it to a CDRW or a CDR. I often use CDRW’s because there are several steps involving several iso files, so this costs me a single media.
If you have a second disk, I recommend performing the backup on the second disk.
If you only have one disk, you should first shrink your c: disk in order to manage some place free, and then create a partition and format it. For such a small job, the Windows disk manager can do the job.
Now, boot on your CloneZilla CD, and perform your backup.
Here below is the Clonezilla splash boot creen, accept the defaut boot settings :
 

 
Choose device-device, local device, beginner mode, and then save_local_partitions_as_an_image
This will perform a partition-to-file backup, and as source choose your system partition, it’s probably the “sd2” or “sd3” disk, you can see it when considering the partition sizes.
If you are not familiar with system backup, here is a tutorial for clonezilla :
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Secondly, shrink the c: disk
 
The c: disk is generally far too big. Our current goal is to make this disk as small as possible. The c: disk has to be big enough for all your basic software, but no more.
Using Windows explorer, have a look at the “properties” of your c: disk.
For instance, my c: disk is a 2 terabytes disk, of which 50 gigs are used. 2000 gigs currently, and 50 gigs used. A lot of space is wasted, because I don’t want to put anything important on my c: disk. So, I will choose a more reasonable size. I decided 200 gigs for the c: disk, leaving 1800 gigs for my personal data, texts, spreadsheets, pictures, and system backups.
Now we need partitioning software. I use gparted for my partitioning purposes, it has a livecd and/or liveusb version, take it from here:
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
Download the gparted livecd for instance, and burn it on a CDRW. Boot on the gparted disk, here below is shown the splash screen.
 

 
When the boot is finished, you will see the gparted main screen. Click in the system partition, on my image here bolow it’s the /dev/sda2 partition, you will see the resizing window.

 
Use the mouse to shrink the partition, reasonably larger than the “yellow” used size.

Create the new partition
 
Now you can boot your Windows system from the hard disk. As the disk has been modified, Windows will probably ask you to reboot.
As we have created a free space on our disk, we can use the Microsoft Disk Manager (right-click on my computer, and choose manage) in order to create a partition on the free space, and format it in NTFS format. This newly formatted disk will probably be your “d:” disk.

Almost finished.
 
Now you have to learn how to work with two disks. Remember that your C: disk is a “danger” disk, it can catch a virys at any time and it will disappear during repair.
Your “D:” disk is your safe data disk.
So, create a “d:\data” folder on your D: disk, and change your Microsoft Office (or other wordprocessing environment) settings in order that d:\data is the default storage place.
So, each time you create a document, it will be saved in the d: disk.
Also, change your browser settings so that they save the downloaded files and pictures in the d: disk, for instance in d:\download.
 
Going live.
 
Now you are ready for going live.
Monthly, perform a system backup off your c: disk. Name your first backup backup1, the second one backup2. On month three, remove backup1 and create backup3.
So, in case of problem, like new driver giving bad results or virus successful attack, simply restore the last backup. If the last backup is unusable, m-1 backup is still there.
And on a daily basis perform a backup of your data disk. A lot of software’s are available for performing differential backup, but you can create your own one in a very simple way.
Let’s say that your photos are in a folder named \photos, and your spreadsheet and word processor data in a folder named \data. These data are very precious, and if you have a hardware failure, you really need to have them immediately available, that’s why I recommend a daily backup for this, let’s say just before poweroff your PC.
Create a text file named “dailybackup.bat”, with the following lines :
 

dir j:@echo @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@echo please check that the USB device is available@echo You must see no errors in the "dir" above@echo @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@pause@cls@mkdir j:\backups\photos 2>nul@mkdir j:\backups\data 2>nulxcopy e:\photos j:\backups\photos /E /D /Yxcopy e:\data j:\backups\data /E /D /Y@echo @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@echo Backup job finished@echo @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@PauseLet’s suppose that your data disk is the “E:” disk, and that your USB external disk is the J: disk.The first “dir” allows checking that your USB disk is connected.
Then come some “mkdir” in order to create the folder structure on the destination disk.
And then you see the “xcopy” command line which copies all the photos from \photos and all the data from \data.
What is nice, is the “/D” option. This option will tell xcopy to save only the “new” files, and “/Y” will accept replacing the existing destination files by the recently modified ones.
There is a “pause” at the end allowing you to see the results before closing the window.
When you run this script for the first time you will see a lot of copied files (you probably have a lot of pictures in the \photos folder).
If you run the script a second time, you will see it working very fast, nothing copied because no newer file exists in the source folder.
Create a new .doc or .xls or .txt file in the \data folder of your internal disk, and double-click the “dailybackup.bat” script, you will see a single file being backed up, the last file you created. All the other ones are not copied because they are already present on your backup media.
So, you have a perfect and very fast script for your daily backup .
Now you are ready for real life, do not forget to do your daily backup of your personal data, and a monthly system backup, and you are ready to recover from any problem.

My last problem arrived after five years of home PC usage, and I had no backup. Please, don’t be as stupid as I was!

Having correct airflow through your PC case is critical to your system running properly. Heat buildup in a computer case can cause lockups, slowdowns and even shutdowns. You should carefully consider the direction of the air when building a PC or when modifying an existing computer.
 
Which way should the case fans blow?
The CPU fan attached to the heat sink should blow down onto the heat sink and processor. Fresh air can be pulled in this way, but you will want additional fans installed to help bring cooler air into the case. An 80mm case fan installed in the front of the computer pulling air in will help the processor run cooler. You may also want to add an additional fan at the rear of the PC that blows the air out of the back. This additional fan in the rear may not be necessary if the power supply has an intake fan inside the case that can pull that warm air out.
 
Improving airflow in the case
You can greatly increase the airflow through your PC by swapping out the standard, flat IDE cables with the rounded type. Because the rounded cables take up less space, air can easily move through the case without being trapped inside. Depending on your setup, you can also rearrange the power cables so that extra wires can be coiled and tucked away near the top.

Balancing PC airflow
Another thing to consider when adding fans is the effect it will have on the interior of the case. If you have a lot of fans pulling air in and not enough moving air out, the interior of the PC will become filled with hair, dust and other debris. You should also not hear one fan working harder that the others. This means the airflow is not balanced properly. For instance, if the rear case fan makes a whirring sound every few seconds, this could indicate there is too much air trying to escape and it cannot keep up.
 
Whatever you do to improve airflow, you should open the case after a week to make sure everything is clean. You can also download monitoring tools to test the case and CPU temperatures before and after to make sure air is circulating properly and keeping the CPU cool.

PC that i used :

proc: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
MB: Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6
mem: Team Xtreem DDR2 1200MHz CL 5-5-5-15 2 GB
GPU: XFX GeForce 8800 GTS
cooling: Thermaltake Bigwater 760i
PSU: silverstone olympia 1000

For Proc :
Q6600 FSB = 1066. Real clock = 266Mhz x 9 ( multiplier ) = 2.4Ghz
if you want a 3Ghz proc. speed, just raise FSB value to 333Mhz. NOT raise FSB value extremely..
or your proc. will blow up.. raise it continously.. ( 5mhz/10Mhz )

if your motherboard can change multiplier value, you can raise multiplier to get a faster speed too.

If Computer can't boot normally. try to raise voltase value.. still can't boot, set peripheral volatage to standard.


For memory :
Just try change timing value to lower. can't work, raise volatge continously.




Some useful tools :

Rivatuner

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163#download
SuperPI
http://http://www.overclock.net/f/
ATITool
https://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/
GPU-Z
https://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/
CPU-Z
http://http://www.cpuid.com/
Orthos
https://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/

How to repair a broken computer.



Use a structured approach.


The fastest and best way to repair a broken computer is to use a structured approach. With a structured approach is ment an approach in which each component of the computer is delt with each after the other.

Ways to make sure a component is not the part that causes the trouble are:
1. Use software to test the component of the computer.
2. Use a new component in stead of the studied component.
3. Use another component out of a working computer.
4. Place the studied component of the computer in another working computer.

ad 1. There is software to test computer components. The test software for memory units is well known. Most builders of hard discs have test programs available on their website to test the health of the hard disc. Most of the time the results of these tests are needed before an order for a return of the hard disc can be made and an RMA-number can be asked for.

The owner of Colossal Storage, Michael Thomas, says he's the first person to solve non-contact optical spintronics which will in turn ultimately result in the creation of 3.5-inch discs with a million times the capacity of any hard drive - 1.2 petabytes of storage!

1.2 Petabyte is a hell lot of space!
For those of you who don't know:
1.2Petabyte = 1 228.8Terabyte = 1 258 291.2Gigabyte

The 1.2Petabyte Hard Disk is expected to be finished within 4 to 5 years from now and would cost approximately $750USD for 1

Read itHere

520 of these COULD hold the whole internet! As of 2002, the internet was 532,897 TB according to the article i read somewhere.

Your computer is a powerful tool to demonstrate your thoughts, but often the screen is too small for a whole class to see. There are several options for projecting your screen and they all follow some basic hook up procedures. The main options are: 1. Scan Converter which shows your computer desktop on a TV screen 2. LCD panel to place on strong overhead projectors 3. Projector which shows your computer desktop on a screen projection 4. (Different setup procedures not listed) Software to broadcast to other computers (see your tech person for availability)Any computer with a separate CPU (the computer box) and monitor can usually support a projector, LCD panel, or scan converter because they already have a port to plug the monitor in (this is where you’ll plug the device(s) in). The "all-in-one" computers (monitor and CPU in one box) will not support a projector, LCD panel, or scan converter unless a separate external monitor port has been installed. Here’s what you do: - Read the instructions that came with the projector, LCD panel, or scan converter. - Plug the monitor-type cable from the input port on projector, LCD panel, or scan converter into the monitor port in the CPU. - Plug the actual monitor cable into the monitor output port on projector, LCD panel, or scan converter. - Turn on the projector, LCD panel, or scan converter. - Turn on or restart the computer. This will allow the computer to sense the device if it needs to. - If it’s a scan converter, plug the smaller, video cable into both the scan converter (video out) and the TV (video in). - Turn the TV on and turn to channel 3 (or 4 or Aux). For newer TVs, you can scroll through a menu where you can choose the input type--choose "Video" or "Ext" or an equivalent (This is one of those "Play with it!" moments where you experiment with the settings until the you see the desktop on the TV.) - If it’s a projector or LCD panel, there’s probably a "sleep" or "power" button that will turn on the lamp. Once it’s on, use the menu buttons on the projector to select the input settings so that you can see the desktop being projected.
Notice from SpaceWaste: Seemed more suitable as a tutorial - SpaceWasteTopic edited to make it more relevant to content - m^e