A New Computer

June 23, 2010 By 3 Comments
CyberPower built computer

CyberPower built computer interior

Having had my computer for close to 4 years, I decided that the summer time was a good time to replace it. I wanted the new one to have the latest Intel 6-core CPU, 12 GB RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7. While searching for options and trying to make build or buy decisions I came across a great deal on the HP site. They had a computer with everything I wanted and with a $400 instant rebate. The price of the computer came lower than the parts I could purchase. So, I bought one. Mistake number 1! Shipping was a disaster, I specifically wanted to receive it after a certain date as I would be out of town and not be able to receive the product. The sales person assured me that they were not that ahead of schedule. So, I believed him. Mistake number 2. [Read more...]

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Extra Memory for my Desktop: Update

December 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

In an earlier post I explained how I installed extra memory for better computer performance, that was last August. Since then my computer started acting strangely. Don’t get me wrong, the performance gains were real and when the computer was running it worked beautifully. The problem was with the cold boot in the morning, it would not start until it warmed up a little, taking upwards of five minutes of “hand cranking” to start. Once it started, there was no ill effects. When I had lots of work to do, I began leaving it on all the time to save the trouble of restarting in the morning. It ran for weeks without any problems. [Read more...]

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Scanner does not Work, Code 19

August 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I have had two scanners connected to my computer for many years, a Canon FS4000 film scanner and an Epson 2450 flat bed, with no problems with either one. About a month or so ago I wanted to copy a piece of paper and found out that my trusty Epson did not work. I unistalled the driver and isntalled it several times with no success. I would go through the install process, the computer would recognize the scanner by its brand and model, then it would present me with a message:

There was a problem installing this hardware.
Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged (Code 19)

My search efforts gave me no help and I disconnected the Epson and connected it to my wife’s computer with no problems. [Read more...]

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Extra Memory for my Desktop

August 17, 2008 By 2 Comments

(After reading this, you may also want to read the update that I posted.)

This morning I added extra 2GB of RAM to bring the total memory to 4GB total. I made sure that I purchased the same type of memory as the originals, Corsair TWIN2X2048 from NewEgg.com. NewEgg is a great place to buy stuff, they really care about their customers. I have a story to prove it.

After installing the memory I did a Google search on whther further steps were necessary. The properties of my computer showed the total memory as 3.25GB, but I wanted to make sure. Good thing I did. There is a file in the root directory of the boot drive, typically drive C:, called boot.ini. It instructs Windows XP on special steps of features to enable during the boot time. There appears to be two relevant soft switces that may need to be added, they are /PAE and /3GB. They are simply added to the end of a line in the boot.ine file. So, my boot.ini line looked like the following, your boot.ini file may be different: [Read more...]

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