The Technology Help Corner.

Ziadaine_v1legacy

Flamboyant Homosexual
Apr 11, 2009
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[HEADING=1]Advice Forum - Technology Help[/HEADING]
[small]Find Everything you need for the best Escapist Experience.[/small]


[HEADING=2]CURRENTLY UPDATING FRONT PAGE, WILL BE FINISHED MID OCTOBER 2014.[/HEADING]

[HEADING=2]Introduction.[/HEADING]

Lately there's been ALOT of Questions regarding problems with technology from computers and laptops to games, programs etc. What this topic is designed for is a quick way for users to know what to ask about specific problems and where to get help for it. (As well as understanding some of our mumbo-jumbo).

We use them everywhere, weather it's Gaming, Graphics, Music, Documents, iPhone's etc; but what happens when they break? This section is designed to show you what the basic Hardware and Software are used in computers, Building your first rig, Forum coding and all sorts!
[HEADING=2]Hardware.[/HEADING]
Hardware is the physical objects inside a computer that make it run.

[HEADING=3]Hard Drive[/HEADING]
Hard Drives are what stores all data on a Computer. Your Operating System, Documents, Music etc are all shoved into this storage block. If it breaks, all your Data is gone. There are two types and sizes of Hard Drives; IDE Which are the older model Hard Drives and SATA which are used commonly by most machines today, both coming in 2.5" and 3.5" Sizes. There are also another form of Hard Drive called the "Solid State Drive" which is a more powerful Hard Drive designed to withstand more physical hits then a normal Hard Drive and run more reliable as well as faster. However, Unlike a Hard Drive the space stored on them isn't as big and costs much more then your typical Hard Drive.


[HEADING=3]RAM[/HEADING]
RAM (Or known commonly as memory) is how much data a computer can move about at once and at what speeds. They come in little sticks and range from SDRAM, DDR1, DDR2 and DDR3 RAM. Most machines now use either DDR2 or DDR3.


[HEADING=3]Motherboard[/HEADING]
Basically they are a giant circuit board which everything connects to so that they can all communicate and run a machine. Each one is designed for a Processor type, Hard Drive type and RAM type.


[HEADING=3]Processor[/HEADING]
Also known as a CPU, This is the brain and heart of a computer. This processes all data, tells what part of a computer to do what etc. There are two types of Processor companies who each make different Processor types: Intel and AMD.


[HEADING=3]Graphics Card[/HEADING]
This is what produces your graphics. Basic computers have them built into their motherboards, others (Especially heavy gamer machines) have a Graphics Card added in. There are two makers of graphics cards: nVidia and ATi (Now known as AMD). Also there are two types of Graphics Cards;

-AGP: These are the OLD Models for (much) older motherboards.
-PCI-e: This is what most machines now use.


[HEADING=3]Power Supply[/HEADING]
Fairly obvious, It's a big box that powers a machine, but also Denpending on what hardware you're running, you need a correct amount of Power. An example is generally with 2 Graphics Cards, you need at least 700W+ of power at minimum, while with 1 you may only need 600W



[HEADING=2]Software.[/HEADING]
These are programs that make you able to interact with your computer.

[HEADING=3]Operating System[/HEADING]
This is the main Program. The big wig. Most commonly known as Windows, Linux or Mac/Snow Leopard. Each machine has the option to have a OS installed, however some machines can ONLY have a certain OS installed and work properly (Yes, the Mac).

[HEADING=3]Drivers[/HEADING]
These are programs that help the hardware perform better (or in some cases perform at all). You have drivers for your Graphics Card, Multiple ones for the Motherboard, The Processor, Sound, USB etc.

[HEADING=3]Anti Virus, Spyware and Malware [/HEADING]
These are programs designed to protect your computer from viruses and other nasty things that try to break your computer.

Most common Anti Viruses:
Kaspersky [http://www.kaspersky.com/] (Paid/Trial)
Trend Micro [http://www.trendmicro.com.au/au/home/] (Paid/Trial)
Norton [http://antivirus.norton.com/norton/ps/3up_au_en_navnis360.html?om_sem_cid=hho_sem_ic:au:ggl:en:e|kw0000004480] (Paid/Trial)
Avast! [http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download] (Free)
Comodo [http://www.comodo.com/] (Free)
AVG [http://www.avg.com.au/home/] (Free)
Microsoft Security Essentials [http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/mse.aspx] (Free but only for legit Windows XP, Vista or 7)

Other helpful Programs:
Malwarebytes [http://www.malwarebytes.org/] (Free)

[HEADING=3]Games[/HEADING]
...'nuff said

[HEADING=3]Miscellaneous Programs[/HEADING]
These are various Programs added here that you might be interested in, including customizing the appearance of your Desktops.

Rainmeter - Customizable toolbars and information on your desktop. [http://rainmeter.net/RainCMS/]
Rocketdock - An Icon dock which gives you a 1-click access to programs, Files and Folders. [http://rocketdock.com/]
Objectdock/Stardock - An Icon dock which gives you a 1-click access to programs, Files and Folders. [http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/]

[HEADING=2]The Escapist Forum-Related Section[/HEADING]

Many users (old and new) often wonder about how certain codes work on the forum boards, weather it's for formatting, embedding or posting cat pictures. So that's what this section is aimed at.

[HEADING=3]Image Embedding[/HEADING]
This is by-far the most commonly asked question, "How do I post a picture?. Firstly, find the URL of the image, making sure it ends with an image format, such as this:
Code:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tyuEa-m-Jj4/T8mZNeSpUwI/AAAAAAAADGM/bmLPK4LRIXc/s1600/funny-cats_23.jpg
See how it ends in .jpg? That's one of the many common image formats. The most common and used of course are:
[li].jpg[/li]
[li].png[/li]
[li].bmp[/li]
[li].gif ("gifs" are commonly animated pictures)[/li]

When you want to post an image, or "Embed" into your post, you use what's called the IMG tags, like so:
Code:
[ IMG ] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tyuEa-m-Jj4/T8mZNeSpUwI/AAAAAAAADGM/bmLPK4LRIXc/s1600/funny-cats_23.jpg [ /IMG ]
Doing that, opens the tag, puts the URL in, then closes the tag so it knows where the image's URL end. Then we end up with something like this:



An important note however, when doing an IMG code, you MUST have it in either all caps like 'IMG' or 'img', one or the other, otherwise it won't work and don't forget the '/' in the close tag, otherwise the forum won't recognise it's a close tag.

Also ensure there are no spaces in your codes, otherwise they won't work either. (With the exception of this guide because code tags aren't working...)


[HEADING=2]How can YOU help?[/HEADING]
When asking a question about a computer problem be sure to be very clear on what you mean, if possible list your details like so:

Example (My Specs) said:
Im having problems running a certain game, it load but its all slow and choppy and at times stop working.

Processor: Intel i7 950
Graphics Card: nVidia GTX 480
RAM Amount: 6 GB DDR3
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate
To view your computers specs Right Click on "My Computer" (or "Computer" for Vista/Win7) and click properties or you can download a program called Speccy [http://www.piriform.com/speccy] Which will scan your computer and give a full list of everything running. If you want to compare your specs to see if you can run a game, go to Can You Run It? [http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/] and/or check the box of the game to see the minimum specs. (Note: Can You Run It? isn't 100% Accurate, especially with games that have upgraded and have more demand in resources such as Team Fortress 2, World of Warcraft etc)

[HEADING=2]Measurements and Units.[/HEADING]
Hard Drives
Hard Drives measure data in amounts called Bytes. A Single byte is such a small amount of information, it probably would not be able to contain this entire sentence. Bytes are notated by prefixes akin to the Metric system.
  • 1 Byte = 1B
    Example: A short value, like "8942"
    1 Kilobyte = 1KB (1000B)
    A nominal but still rather small value, like a portion of this post.
    1 Megabyte = 1MB (1000KB)
    One of the most frequently occurring values in modern computation. A typical youtube video is about 5MB for 4 minutes.
    1 Gigabyte = 1GB (1000MB)
    Common unit for larger bunches of information. A video game can range from 1 to 8GB.
    1 Terabyte = 1TB (1000GB)
    Uncommonly large unit, the size of most hard drives these days.
    1 Petabyte = 1PB (1000TB)
    Extremely large unit. All of Facebook could probably fit on a 50 Petabyte Hard drive.
    1 Exabyte = 1EB (1000PB)
    Unit used by Computer Theoretical Science. Some say If all particle interactions in the universe that ever occurred were recorded, they would probably be able to fit on a 10 EB hard drive.

RAM
Ram varies depending upon what sort of programs and games you play, but a nice round figure is a bit above 1GB. RAM memory in amount is similar to your Hard Disc space, except you don't need all that much comparatively. Hard Drives measure how much data in total your computer can store, whereas RAM is how much information your computer can hold in reserve and think about moment-by-moment. Data in RAM is cleared and erased when you turn off your computer.

Processor
Quick joke, who's the winner of the 7th Gen Console wars? Answer: Intel, they make the chipsets for all three systems.
Processors have all sorts of things that can be read about them since to computers they're the Brain, Heart, Kidneys and Stomach all combined. Their main task is calculations. Sheer volume of math. The unit which measures its speed is either the MIPS or the MOPS, which stand for Millions of Instructions/Operations Per Second. A Playstation 3 can do about 10,000MOPS, Intel i7 Processors can do more than 100,000MOPS. Pretty straight forward, the higher the number, the faster your Processor can think.

Graphics Card
Graphics cards (or Video Cards) are like tiny computers built to be attached to the inside of Computers, with their own internal dedicated RAM, Processor and Cooling system, except their programming architecture is specifically designed for Graphics and visuals calculation, such as Game Engines.
The measurements of a Graphics card are its Clock Rate and Bandwidth.
The Clock rate is how fast the Graphics Processor can flip between a 0 and a 1 at the most basic level of Binary. It's measured in Hertz. Typical modern graphics cards can do Several Gigahertz (GHz), or Billions of 'flips' per second.
Bandwidth is how quickly information can be shared To and From the card and the motherboard. Quite simply it's measured in Bytes per second. Depending on the quality and year of the card, it can vary from 2 to 100 GB/s.

Power Supply
Power supplys convert safe and normal household AC current (whose Voltage varies depending upon what country you're from) into a Standardized DC current for operation inside your computer. The more Wattage (W for Watts) it can supply, the more hardware it can have installed on it.

[small]This section courtesy of Anarchemitis[/small]

[HEADING=2]Extra Links Within The Escapist.[/HEADING]
The Escapist Forum Code of Conduct [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/codeofconduct]
The Banhammer and You: A User's Guide to the Forums [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.112832-The-Banhammer-and-You-A-Users-Guide-to-the-Forums]
Community and Forums Codex & Index [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.202272-The-Escapist-Community-and-Forums-Codex-Index-Guides]
The Escapist Forum Badge Gallery [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.282858-The-Escapist-Forum-Badge-Gallery-Badges-828-Version-II]
The Escapist Forums - Moderation FAQ [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.309173-Moderation-FAQ]
The PC Builders and Hardware Group

[HEADING=2]Final Notes[/HEADING]
If you think anything extra should be added, changed, opinions etc don't hesitate to PM me or post them in the topic. Happy Breaking Fixing Stuff!

[HEADING=2]Thank Yous[/HEADING]
Thanks to Anarchemitis, JesterRaiin, Kabutos, Tubez for Helping and reminding me to update this list!

[HEADING=2]Update Section[/HEADING]

Update 27-Jan-2013: I'm VERY sorry for the lack of maintaining this thread. RL issues have occupied me all 2012, as well as battling Mentl Health issues. I will hopefully Get this all up to date at some point.


Update 29-Jan-2013:
Due to Cyclonic weather here, I was unable to do anything. However, I have now started updating the "Forum" section of this guide. Eventually I plan to do a FULL overhull of this guide, to accompany common questions in general of the Advice forum, including Health, Mental awareness, technology, Forum stuff etc.

Update 05-Jun-2013:
Mod Edit: Added "the PC Builders and Hardware Group" to the links within the Escapist section - Eleu
 

Anarchemitis

New member
Dec 23, 2007
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[HEADING=3]Measurements and Units[/HEADING]
Hard Drives
Hard Drives measure data in amounts called Bytes. A Single byte is such a small amount of information, it probably would not be able to contain this entire sentence. Bytes are notated by prefixes akin to the Metric system.
  • 1 Byte = 1B
    Example: A short value, like "8942"
    1 Kilobyte = 1KB (1000B)
    A nominal but still rather small value, like a portion of this post.
    1 Megabyte = 1MB (1000KB)
    One of the most frequently occurring values in modern computation. A typical youtube video is about 5MB for 4 minutes.
    1 Gigabyte = 1GB (1000GB)
    Common unit for larger bunches of information. A video game can range from 1 to 8GB.
    1 Terabyte = 1TB (1000GB)
    Uncommonly large unit, the size of most hard drives these days.
    1 Petabyte = 1PB (1000TB)
    Extremely large unit. All of Facebook could probably fit on a 50 Petabyte Hard drive.
    1 Exabyte = 1EB (1000PB)
    Unit used by Computer Theoretical Science. Some say If all particle interactions in the universe that ever occurred were recorded, they would probably be able to fit on a 10 EB hard drive.

RAM
Ram varies depending upon what sort of programs and games you play, but a nice round figure is a bit above 1GB. RAM memory in amount is similar to your Hard Disc space, except you don't need all that much comparatively. Hard Drives measure how much data in total your computer can store, whereas RAM is how much information your computer can hold in reserve and think about moment-by-moment. Data in RAM is cleared and erased when you turn off your computer.

Processor
Quick joke, who's the winner of the 7th Gen Console wars? Answer: Intel, they make the chipsets for all three systems.
Processors have all sorts of things that can be read about them since to computers they're the Brain, Heart, Kidneys and Stomach all combined. Their main task is calculations. Sheer volume of math. The unit which measures its speed is either the MIPS or the MOPS, which stand for Millions of Instructions/Operations Per Second. A Playstation 3 can do about 10,000MOPS, Intel i7 Processors can do more than 100,000MOPS. Pretty straight forward, the higher the number, the faster your Processor can think.

Graphics Card
Graphics cards (or Video Cards) are like tiny computers built to be attached to the inside of Computers, with their own internal dedicated RAM, Processor and Cooling system, except their programming architecture is specifically designed for Graphics and visuals calculation, such as Game Engines.
The measurements of a Graphics card are its Clock Rate and Bandwidth.
The Clock rate is how fast the graphics processor can flip between a 0 and a 1 at the most basic level of Binary. It's measured in Hertz. Typical modern graphics cards can do several Gigahertz (GHz), or Billions of 'flips' per second.
Bandwidth is how quickly information can be shared To and From the card and the motherboard. Quite simply it's measured in Bytes per second. Depending on the quality and year of the card, it can vary from 2 to 100 GB/s.

Power Supply
Power supplys convert safe and normal household AC current (whose Voltage varies depending upon what country you're from) into a Standardized DC current for operation inside your computer. The more Wattage (W for Watts) it can supply, the more hardware it can have installed on it.
 

MrTub

New member
Mar 12, 2009
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One byte is 8 bit and if you are using a windows OS 1Kbyte = 1024Byte, 1Mbyte = 1024Kbyte, 1Gbyte = 1024Mbyte
1Terabyte = 1024Gbyte and so on. So when they are selling you a 750Gbyte hdd it will say you only got around 700Gbyte in windows (Since HDD manufacturers are counting 1kb=1000B

And you might want to mention SSD (Solid state drive)
 

DefunctTheory

Not So Defunct Now
Mar 30, 2010
6,438
0
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I demand this thread be cleared of riff raff, stuck and locked.

This I demand. Make it be so.
 

Kabutos

New member
Oct 21, 2008
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I would say use Speccy [http://www.piriform.com/speccy] to find out your system specs. It's a lot better than right click > properties and isn't cluttered up like dxdiag.

Also I wouldn't use Can You Run It?, it's unreliable at times and you can do the same thing by looking at the back of the game's box.
 

Ziadaine_v1legacy

Flamboyant Homosexual
Apr 11, 2009
1,604
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Thanks guys, I've touched it up a bit and plan on adding in chapters on Building your first rig, Forum codes (BBCode) and a few others.
 

mad825

New member
Mar 28, 2010
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you may want to clear-up the "hard drive" spoiler. Hard drives are a non-volatile storage device.

first I would rename it to "Data storage device" or "backing storage" then have a section divided-up into HDD and SSD. provide a summary underneath i.e;

HDD
+cheapest per GB
+"unlimited" number of writes
-consumes more power
-produces more heat
-lower data transfer speeds

SSD
+shockproof
+consumes less power
+produces less heat
+higher data transfer speeds
+no spin-up
+no noise
-limited number of writes
-most expensive per GB

...Thats the most I can think of at this time.

Also if the HDD breaks (as in catastrophic hard drive failure), the amount of data lost would be unknown until the damage is examined. The data might still be recoverable although you would need to send it off to a Data recovery specialist...which costs money...and takes time.
 

Ziadaine_v1legacy

Flamboyant Homosexual
Apr 11, 2009
1,604
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Well its more of a large collection of info for the average user. Unless It's a businesses major files I dont think the average person will send it off when it costs almost $1000+. ;)

I will expand on SSD and HDD, I want to keep it as simple as possible (to a degree) so I dont confuse the crap out of people.
 

DefunctTheory

Not So Defunct Now
Mar 30, 2010
6,438
0
0
mad825 said:
you may want to clear-up the "hard drive" spoiler. Hard drives are a non-volatile storage device.

first I would rename it to "Data storage device" or "backing storage" then have a section divided-up into HDD and SSD. provide a summary underneath i.e;

HDD
+cheapest per GB
+"unlimited" number of writes
-consumes more power
-produces more heat
-lower data transfer speeds

SSD
+shockproof
+consumes less power
+produces less heat
+higher data transfer speeds
+no spin-up
+no noise
-limited number of writes
-most expensive per GB

...Thats the most I can think of at this time.

Also if the HDD breaks (as in catastrophic hard drive failure), the amount of data lost would be unknown until the damage is examined. The data might still be recoverable although you would need to send it off to a Data recovery specialist...which costs money...and takes time.
This thread is to enlighten the average user who doesn't know what the hell is going on. As such, we should keep explanation on the subjects focused on the 'functional' side, and keep away from the deeper issues and terms.

If they want to know the difference between Volatile and Non-Volatile memory, they can pick up an A+ book.
 

Jabberwock xeno

New member
Oct 30, 2009
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Hey.

I was trying to make a screen capture on my laptop via the blue fn button and F11, but I hit ctrl or shift (don't remeber which, think it was the former) and F11.

My screen turned shite before coming back, now my computer is lagish.

The program I was using froze when I went to open something minimized and went back to the program, but hitting just F11 unfreezes it.


I also read that Ctrl and F11 resets the laptop to a factory defualt state, and am now worried as fuck.

If this is true, why do I still have all of my stuff? If it needs to reset first, then is there a way to quickly back up my stuff? will system resore help, or will it just restore me to after I hit the button.

Please help.


Sorry if this post is rude, I was trying to post this on 4chan (my usal choice of tech help due to instant responses), but the site isn't working for me.
 

dmase

New member
Mar 12, 2009
2,117
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Jabberwock xeno said:
Hey.

I was trying to make a screen capture on my laptop via the blue fn button and F11, but I hit ctrl or shift (don't remeber which, think it was the former) and F11.

My screen turned shite before coming back, now my computer is lagish.

The program I was using froze when I went to open something minimized and went back to the program, but hitting just F11 unfreezes it.


I also read that Ctrl and F11 resets the laptop to a factory defualt state, and am now worried as fuck.

If this is true, why do I still have all of my stuff? If it needs to reset first, then is there a way to quickly back up my stuff? will system resore help, or will it just restore me to after I hit the button.

Please help.


Sorry if this post is rude, I was trying to post this on 4chan (my usal choice of tech help due to instant responses), but the site isn't working for me.
That would be bad design if it resetted to that state by just hitting the button. I think what you mean is ctrl f11 at start up which if you have a dell would put it back to factory defualt.

"Full-screen mode in all modern Internet browsers.
Ctrl + F11 as computer is starting to access the hidden recovery partition on many Dell computers.
Access the hidden recovery partition on eMachines, Gateway, and Lenovo computers."
 

Jabberwock xeno

New member
Oct 30, 2009
2,461
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dmase said:
Jabberwock xeno said:
Hey.

I was trying to make a screen capture on my laptop via the blue fn button and F11, but I hit ctrl or shift (don't remeber which, think it was the former) and F11.

My screen turned shite before coming back, now my computer is lagish.

The program I was using froze when I went to open something minimized and went back to the program, but hitting just F11 unfreezes it.


I also read that Ctrl and F11 resets the laptop to a factory defualt state, and am now worried as fuck.

If this is true, why do I still have all of my stuff? If it needs to reset first, then is there a way to quickly back up my stuff? will system resore help, or will it just restore me to after I hit the button.

Please help.


Sorry if this post is rude, I was trying to post this on 4chan (my usal choice of tech help due to instant responses), but the site isn't working for me.
That would be bad design if it resetted to that state by just hitting the button. I think what you mean is ctrl f11 at start up which if you have a dell would put it back to factory defualt.

"Full-screen mode in all modern Internet browsers.
Ctrl + F11 as computer is starting to access the hidden recovery partition on many Dell computers.
Access the hidden recovery partition on eMachines, Gateway, and Lenovo computers."
Good news, but then why did the computer get laggy and odd if it only works at boot up?
 

dmase

New member
Mar 12, 2009
2,117
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Jabberwock xeno said:
Well couldn't hurt to try again, if you did fuck something up its done so try try again. What i'm thinking is you pressed ctrl f11 and it put your browser or tried putting your browser to full screen or f10 opens up a menu for your current program. Honestly I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, just guessing.

What programs where you running? The program that your using to screen capture and the program you where trying to capture. Also what brand is your computer.
 

Jabberwock xeno

New member
Oct 30, 2009
2,461
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dmase said:
Jabberwock xeno said:
Well couldn't hurt to try again, if you did fuck something up its done so try try again. What i'm thinking is you pressed ctrl f11 and it put your browser or tried putting your browser to full screen or f10 opens up a menu for your current program. Honestly I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, just guessing.

What programs where you running? The program that your using to screen capture and the program you where trying to capture. Also what brand is your computer.
I was playing the minecraft demo, I don't use screencap software, I use the "prnt scrn" button.

I have a dell.
 

dmase

New member
Mar 12, 2009
2,117
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0
Jabberwock xeno said:
dmase said:
Jabberwock xeno said:
Well couldn't hurt to try again, if you did fuck something up its done so try try again. What i'm thinking is you pressed ctrl f11 and it put your browser or tried putting your browser to full screen or f10 opens up a menu for your current program. Honestly I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, just guessing.

What programs where you running? The program that your using to screen capture and the program you where trying to capture. Also what brand is your computer.
I was playing the minecraft demo, I don't use screencap software, I use the "prnt scrn" button.

I have a dell.
http://www.redditgadgetguide.com/r/Minecraft/comments/e13f7/f11_is_a_dangerous_key_in_minecraft/

Seems there are at least a few people having some problems with f11 and minecraft, even if there problems don't mirror your own. So your post saysyou where trying to press fn f11 why if your going to prt sc? I probably just don't have the same set up as you but fn insert is my prt sc for my laptop.

Anyways at least you know your computer isn't going to implode all your data when you shut it down.
 

=HCFS=Discoman

New member
Jan 1, 2010
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Tubez said:
One byte is 8 bit and if you are using a windows OS 1Kbyte = 1024Byte, 1Mbyte = 1024Kbyte, 1Gbyte = 1024Mbyte
1Terabyte = 1024Gbyte and so on. So when they are selling you a 750Gbyte hdd it will say you only got around 700Gbyte in windows (Since HDD manufacturers are counting 1kb=1000B

And you might want to mention SSD (Solid state drive)
well, on hard drives, it usually says that the listed capacity is actual storage, but actual formatted storage will be smaller. a lot of the space is taken with the file system, directory codes, and all the other things that make the stuff work, but are things you never interact with.

and not a reply, just adding my own thing:
a bit is a single of or off command, which is how digital electronics work.(advanced electronics theory, will not explain it here. massive books get written on the subject.)

a bit is either a 1 or a 0. 1 is on, 0 is off.
bits are commonly written in groups of four.
1101 is an example
four bits is called a nibble.
a byte is eight bits. there is usually a space between nibbles when written out.
1011 1101 1001 1110
the above is 16 bits, four nibbles, and two bytes.
binary code is basic machine language, it uses only on and off commands to tell a machine what to do. it is how a machine naturally understands instructions, but is the hardest language to work in.
http://www.steveharrell.com/computer/binary.htm
that link is a basic primer to understanding how numbers translate into binary and how binary works.
the most basic machine to work with binary code is called a turing machine. basically, it runs calculations by writing binary code of the calculation onto a strip of some erasable material, and changing the code as needed. frequently, they are merely a conceptual idea, but one was actually built.
http://hackedgadgets.com/2010/03/27/a-built-turing-machine/
http://aturingmachine.com/index.php
a turing machine is a physical analogue of how a CPU actually works, and building one could be of immense help if you want to further understand how a computer works and how binary works in depth.
 

DefunctTheory

Not So Defunct Now
Mar 30, 2010
6,438
0
0
=HCFS=Discoman said:
Tubez said:
One byte is 8 bit and if you are using a windows OS 1Kbyte = 1024Byte, 1Mbyte = 1024Kbyte, 1Gbyte = 1024Mbyte
1Terabyte = 1024Gbyte and so on. So when they are selling you a 750Gbyte hdd it will say you only got around 700Gbyte in windows (Since HDD manufacturers are counting 1kb=1000B

And you might want to mention SSD (Solid state drive)
well, on hard drives, it usually says that the listed capacity is actual storage, but actual formatted storage will be smaller. a lot of the space is taken with the file system, directory codes, and all the other things that make the stuff work, but are things you never interact with.

and not a reply, just adding my own thing:
a bit is a single of or off command, which is how digital electronics work.(advanced electronics theory, will not explain it here. massive books get written on the subject.)

a bit is either a 1 or a 0. 1 is on, 0 is off.
bits are commonly written in groups of four.
1101 is an example
four bits is called a nibble.
a byte is eight bits. there is usually a space between nibbles when written out.
1011 1101 1001 1110
the above is 16 bits, four nibbles, and two bytes.
binary code is basic machine language, it uses only on and off commands to tell a machine what to do. it is how a machine naturally understands instructions, but is the hardest language to work in.
http://www.steveharrell.com/computer/binary.htm
that link is a basic primer to understanding how numbers translate into binary and how binary works.
the most basic machine to work with binary code is called a turing machine. basically, it runs calculations by writing binary code of the calculation onto a strip of some erasable material, and changing the code as needed. frequently, they are merely a conceptual idea, but one was actually built.
http://hackedgadgets.com/2010/03/27/a-built-turing-machine/
http://aturingmachine.com/index.php
a turing machine is a physical analogue of how a CPU actually works, and building one could be of immense help if you want to further understand how a computer works and how binary works in depth.
Actually, Hard Drive storage is measured in 1000. The actually formatting of a hard drive takes almost no space up, unless the system is compensating for bad sectors. Current file systems are quite efficient.

And binary is extremely easy to learn. It's just numbers. Unless your talking about ASCII, in which case, that's pretty easy too.

I also feel the need to mention, once again, that this thread is for basic computer diagnoses and design. Why people feel the need to come in here and prove how 'high speed' they are eludes me.
 

=HCFS=Discoman

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Jan 1, 2010
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AccursedTheory said:
=HCFS=Discoman said:
Tubez said:
One byte is 8 bit and if you are using a windows OS 1Kbyte = 1024Byte, 1Mbyte = 1024Kbyte, 1Gbyte = 1024Mbyte
1Terabyte = 1024Gbyte and so on. So when they are selling you a 750Gbyte hdd it will say you only got around 700Gbyte in windows (Since HDD manufacturers are counting 1kb=1000B

And you might want to mention SSD (Solid state drive)
well, on hard drives, it usually says that the listed capacity is actual storage, but actual formatted storage will be smaller. a lot of the space is taken with the file system, directory codes, and all the other things that make the stuff work, but are things you never interact with.

and not a reply, just adding my own thing:
a bit is a single of or off command, which is how digital electronics work.(advanced electronics theory, will not explain it here. massive books get written on the subject.)

a bit is either a 1 or a 0. 1 is on, 0 is off.
bits are commonly written in groups of four.
1101 is an example
four bits is called a nibble.
a byte is eight bits. there is usually a space between nibbles when written out.
1011 1101 1001 1110
the above is 16 bits, four nibbles, and two bytes.
binary code is basic machine language, it uses only on and off commands to tell a machine what to do. it is how a machine naturally understands instructions, but is the hardest language to work in.
http://www.steveharrell.com/computer/binary.htm
that link is a basic primer to understanding how numbers translate into binary and how binary works.
the most basic machine to work with binary code is called a turing machine. basically, it runs calculations by writing binary code of the calculation onto a strip of some erasable material, and changing the code as needed. frequently, they are merely a conceptual idea, but one was actually built.
http://hackedgadgets.com/2010/03/27/a-built-turing-machine/
http://aturingmachine.com/index.php
a turing machine is a physical analogue of how a CPU actually works, and building one could be of immense help if you want to further understand how a computer works and how binary works in depth.
Actually, Hard Drive storage is measured in 1000. The actually formatting of a hard drive takes almost no space up, unless the system is compensating for bad sectors. Current file systems are quite efficient.

And binary is extremely easy to learn. It's just numbers. Unless your talking about ASCII, in which case, that's pretty easy too.

I also feel the need to mention, once again, that this thread is for basic computer diagnoses and design. Why people feel the need to come in here and prove how 'high speed' they are eludes me.
okay, well i do not know how efficient modern file systems are. i do know my hard drive is several Gb smaller than it said on the box, and the drive says that actual formatted capacity will be less.
the basics of binary is easy-it is ones and zeros. i'm talking about actual communication in binary-machine language. that is very hard.

binary is a basic part of a computer. it is the most basic essence of how a computer understands things and functions. high speed? i'm actually rather insulted. then again, if I cited my sources of wikipedia and howstuffworks and google, then i would be being more honest.
seriously, i barely understand most of this.
 

Rushin

New member
Dec 22, 2008
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I recently got infected with a trojan specifically a trojan.gen.2, only problem is that symatec endpoint protection will not remove it from my computer. i run a HP elitebook 8440p on windows 7 professional recently i have tried to sync my ipod, which now can't sync to itunes it says an error has occurred (13014). So my question is two fold. 1 can a trojan cause this problem with itunes and 2 how can i remove the trojan.

Also ps im not very good with computer programs I only ever use my laptop for internet and work.
 

dmase

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Mar 12, 2009
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Rushin said:
I recently got infected with a trojan specifically a trojan.gen.2, only problem is that symatec endpoint protection will not remove it from my computer. i run a HP elitebook 8440p on windows 7 professional recently i have tried to sync my ipod, which now can't sync to itunes it says an error has occurred (13014). So my question is two fold. 1 can a trojan cause this problem with itunes and 2 how can i remove the trojan.

Also ps im not very good with computer programs I only ever use my laptop for internet and work.
Its definitely not the trojan. And how did it fail? Did you do a scan the computer, it showed up as having an error, then asked how you wanted to fix it and thats where it failed? If so i'd say try and change the fix column to either quarantine or remove, which ever one you haven't tried. I don't know why your paid for software wouldn't be able to fix it.

Your itunes problem might just be because of a recent update. Turn off itunes disconnect your ipod restart your computer and try again.