Random Question Thread: Tech

[Salodin]

Is it better to have 6gb of slower ram (pc2 5300) or 4gb of faster ram (pc2 6400)? To get the 6gb I'd have to mix ram of different speeds as well, if that makes a difference.

Also, I know 32bit supports up to 4gb of ram, but is it better to upgrade to x64 at that point? Or just stick it out with x32? Vid card ram doesn't matter either iirc, correct?

[Niya]

The speed difference isn't really noticeable, in benchmarks it should be around a one-digit % value.
Mixing speeds can and should work, but there's no guarantee. Most RAMs have JEDEC profiles for lower speeds, use CPU-Z to see if your current RAM has a profile for the lower speed.
The rule of thumb for RAM normally is to only combine sticks with the same size and timings, and in best case also the same manufacturer. But it's all a matter of how delicate your BIOS is.

Oh, and check your mainboard manual for how to populate the RAM slots. If you have 4 slots, only put 2 or 4 modules in, if you have 6 (some Intel CPUs) only put 3 or 6 in. Has to do with dual/triple-channel mode, when you put in the wrong number of modules DC/TC doesn't work, and that can cause a significant performance drop.

32bit OS can in best case address 3,2-3,5GByte of RAM, depending on how good the BIOS handles PAE. Unless you have a really good reason for staying at 32bit, there's no reason to not use x64 even with 4Gig of RAM.
VRAM shouldn't matter, but i think i've heard of older PCs having problems with GPUs that had a lot of VRAM.

[hey]

Is it better to have 6gb of slower ram (pc2 5300) or 4gb of faster ram (pc2 6400)? To get the 6gb I'd have to mix ram of different speeds as well, if that makes a difference.

Depends entirely on usage. As niya said, the higher speed makes very little difference, but if you aren't using anywhere near 4 gb, let alone 6, the extra ram does no good.

[Patb]

Not sure if this has been asked before but I'm having problems installing my SSD.

I have it plugged in and the bios is recognizing it, but when I go into windows, I can't find it anywhere, even going into disk manager I can't set a partition for it because I can't find it. When I first turned the computer on after installing it, it did plug and play and installed drivers and said that it recognized it but I still can't find it.

Should I just do a complete fresh install of win7 and start fresh or can I just use it as a secondary drive?

[Asilius]

Not sure if this has been asked before but I'm having problems installing my SSD.

I have it plugged in and the bios is recognizing it, but when I go into windows, I can't find it anywhere, even going into disk manager I can't set a partition for it because I can't find it. When I first turned the computer on after installing it, it did plug and play and installed drivers and said that it recognized it but I still can't find it.

Should I just do a complete fresh install of win7 and start fresh or can I just use it as a secondary drive?

I would recommend removing your old hard drive and do a fresh install on your ssd then put the hdd back in.

[Athas]

What's the best android phone available on AT&T at the moment? Anything worth waiting for on the horizon?

[Callisto]

Galaxy S3 is up there at the moment, I don't have a lot of experience with non-Samsung phones, I think it'll be a bit before they launch successors to their last two.

[Caiyuo]

Anyone run into problems in Windows XP using Windows Update? Specifically having updates download but fail on installation? I've searched and tried multiple fixes posted on different forums but can't seem to get around this. Working on a neighbor's old computer and after cleaning up the only thing left to do is get about 50 different security updates installed.

[Buffy]

Anyone run into problems in Windows XP using Windows Update? Specifically having updates download but fail on installation? I've searched and tried multiple fixes posted on different forums but can't seem to get around this. Working on a neighbor's old computer and after cleaning up the only thing left to do is get about 50 different security updates installed.

Yes, I've had this problem. It is most likely getting hung up on one specific update, but the others use the same code, so they all won't install. You won't particularly enjoy the solution.

Pick 5, install them, if they all install, restart, try again, pick another five. Eventually you are going to find a batch of 5 that don't install. Break them out, one at a time, install them each one by one, then find the one that doesn't install properly.

Then, google the update number (the windows update will say something like (73095022) or something at the end, and find the patch that lets you fix it. Be careful where you download from, some of these get tricky, and aren't normally sponsored by windows.

I helped someone out and it took me 4 freaking days to get an update to install, was annoying as hell. Worked like clockwork after that.

[Caiyuo]

Somehow this is working, down from 41 updates to 19 atm. If I make it all the way through this I will owe you space on my christmas card list.

e: finished! Was down to 6 that wouldn't install and a forum thread that came up looking for a fix for one mentioned problems with file access so I enabled the built-in administrator account to install the rest with and voila, the rest went without incident. thanks so much for the tip, who knows how long I would've been messing with this.

[Mrbeansman]

How do I change the default settings for audio and subtitles on CCCP and MPC?

[hey]

options->playback

[Yugl]

TCP Optimizer: http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

There is a portion that says "Modify All Network Adaptors"

Should I use that? What does that mean (Aside from modifying network adaptors of course)?

[Caiyuo]

Anyone have something they prefer to use for cleaning up a plastic PC case? Working on a giant ass Alienware tower for someone and the dust and grime is so stuck on that I can't really get this done with just air and a vacuum. Water cut with alcohol or is there something better? There's like actual soda stains on this shitbox.

[Niya]

TCP Optimizer: http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

Don't use that thing at all... XP had its "flaws" in the TCP/IP stack since internet speeds were way lower back then and Microsoft set the maximum size for RWIN too small, but since Vista/7 you'll screw up more than you "fix" with tinkering on the TCP options.

Anyone have something they prefer to use for cleaning up a plastic PC case? Working on a giant ass Alienware tower for someone and the dust and grime is so stuck on that I can't really get this done with just air and a vacuum. Water cut with alcohol or is there something better? There's like actual soda stains on this shitbox.

Sounds like a tough one... First try would be alcohol/gas. Those should be able to remove it as long as it's not too thick.

[Omniyoji]

Anyone have something they prefer to use for cleaning up a plastic PC case? Working on a giant ass Alienware tower for someone and the dust and grime is so stuck on that I can't really get this done with just air and a vacuum. Water cut with alcohol or is there something better? There's like actual soda stains on this shitbox.

WD-40?

[Caiyuo]

Don't use that thing at all... XP had its "flaws" in the TCP/IP stack since internet speeds were way lower back then and Microsoft set the maximum size for RWIN too small, but since Vista/7 you'll screw up more than you "fix" with tinkering on the TCP options.

^^^^^^^^

Sounds like a tough one... First try would be alcohol/gas. Those should be able to remove it as long as it's not too thick.

I'll give it a shot, I figured that would be what I'd need to use. Thought someone else might have some amazing secret solution.

WD-40?

Is that a joke or actually a thing? I guess I could spray a rag and wipe it down but wasn't aware it worked for something like this.

[Izzy]

Is there some way to get media keys to work in FFXI? My Blackwidow Ultimate's media keys work in everything except if FFXI is the main focus.

[Isiolia]

Anyone have something they prefer to use for cleaning up a plastic PC case? Working on a giant ass Alienware tower for someone and the dust and grime is so stuck on that I can't really get this done with just air and a vacuum. Water cut with alcohol or is there something better? There's like actual soda stains on this shitbox.

You just want to make sure you don't use anything super abrasive, or probably petroleum based. I often use a water/alchohol mix for smaller stuff, along with microfiber cloths - basically the kind of stuff they seem to sell for cleaning LCDs. For a larger tower though, probably just multi-surface or electronics specific cleaner. If you have soda stains, maybe Goo-Gone or whatnot if you have it. Or just take the plastic parts off and wash 'em with dish soap and water.

[FallingHigher]

Hello, I'm having trouble running programs and applications on my laptop (Windows 7) as apparently it keeps telling me 'COMCTL32.dll is missing.' It won't load my firewall, anti-virus, xi, etc nor download anything, even doesn't allow me to do a system restore to roll it back to an earlier date. I've had a look at some solutions but I can't do anything as most of them suggest I download a registry cleaner or to reinstall the missing .dll file which it won't let me do as I always get a message saying said file is missing. Tempted to take it into a pc shop and have them look at it but thought I'd ask here first!