Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Computing/2006 August 15

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[edit] Motherboard drivers

Friend of mine just got a new machine, and the amount of software installed on it was disgraceful. I wiped it, and installed from a subset of the recovery discs (they basically modify the boot files of the Windows install so you can't install without running the entire recovery, but they also include a backup of the modified files).

I'm finding that all the fans in the case power up as the OS is booting and stay powered up until shutdown. I'd be willing to bet it has something to do with missing drivers for the motherboard, but I can't seem to find them.

The computer is an HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7470n Desktop PC (whew). It has an MSI-7184 (or something like that) motherboard with an ATI Express 200. I downloaded a driver pack from MSI, but the only drivers that worked or were installed were the video and SMBus driver.

The only driver HP provides on their site is for the BIOS (which is already up to date on the motherboard), and I can't find appropriate drivers anywhere on the recovery partition. There are also no unknown devices listed in device manager so I can't simply trial-and-error the drivers.

Any ideas? --Silvaran 01:54, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Might be a custom app that talks over the SMBus. If you can't find the original app, SpeedFan is worth a shot. - mako 05:52, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
I found the app quite useful, thanks. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the CPU, and frequency scaling not working properly. I'm going to see if I can find an updated driver or something, but that's my best guess at this point. --Silvaran 23:49, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

With my above assumptions I downloaded the CPU driver direct from AMD, installed it and rebooted. I also grabbed a few monitoring utilities from the site. I ran one of the CPU monitoring utilities before rebooting and noticed the frequency stuck at 2.2GHz per core. As I type I have the SpeedFan util you recommended open, it shows both fans (case and CPU) at 40%, and the temperature is flatlined--it's not creeping upwards over time even though the computer's idle. Problem appears to be solved. Thanks again! --Silvaran 00:05, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I spoke too soon. With the SpeedFan util running, it was keeping the fan speed at 40% regardless the temperature of the CPU. :( --Silvaran 02:51, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
You'll have to configure SpeedFan (if you haven't already, that is) before it will do anything. It's pretty straightforward. You also mentioned the frequency not changing; if you want to enable Cool 'n' Quiet, install the driver and change the power scheme to "minimal". - mako 05:39, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
Yeah I tried that, didn't work. I'm going to call HP support and see if they can provide me with motherboard drivers (or the location of them on the recovery partition). I'm getting frustrated dealing with these brand name PCs as they no longer ship driver discs or anything of the sort. Just one magical, slow-running, bloated piece of garbage 9-gig recovery partition with every bit of ad software they can muster. --Silvaran 19:38, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

In case anyone's still interested, my problem seems to have fixed itself. The latest CPU drivers are installed. It seems that when SpeedFan is running, it locks the fan speeds to whatever they're running at when you run SpeedFan. So if the CPU is hot, I run SpeedFan, and the fan speeds are at 100%, they stay there while SpeedFan is running. So I was under the illusion that the fans were running at full speed the whole time. Anyways, I've been running the machine idle for a few days, and everything seems fine (the AMD monitor even reports both cores running at 1GHz, which is good, because it means it's scaling properly). Thanks for listening, folks! :). --Silvaran 03:44, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] java folder

halow

im my blue j softwear my floder isnt opening all the other projects are opening except for this one. i have some very important programs in it.....please help me out!!! thnks tulika

[edit] E-mail

Ok i am e-mail a message to several people in my address book. is there a way to send an e-mail to 10 people but the people who read the e-mail only see that it was sent to only them. is this possible

PS i use yahoo e-mail

Put your own email address in the to: line and put the email addresses of the 10 people in the bcc: line (if you don't see it, look around a bit, might be hidden). digfarenough (talk) 17:52, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
If there isn't a BCC line, put the email addresses in brackets in the CC line. —Daniel (‽) 17:57, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
On the Yahoo "Compose Mail" screen, there are links for "Add CC" and "Add BCC" just above the "To" box. --LarryMac 18:37, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ANSI-Text

The German user http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Nightflyer searches for the German article on ANSI/EIA/TIA-232-F-1997 the text of the standard (free of cost). I know that ANSI is selling the text but there are hundreads or thousands people and institutions in the world which have the text and can give them away free of cost (although copyrighted). Any suggestions beside COPYRIGT PARANOIA? --Historiograf 17:43, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Tell the user to buy it. Fair use does not allow verbatim distribution of the whole. --Kjoonlee 01:55, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
Maybe you should ask on the Miscellaneous desk? Doesn't seem much like IT to me. --Kjoonlee 01:56, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Email headers

After reading the response to the email header question above, I have another:

Sometimes I get mail from "myself", assuming this is not a virus/spyware thing (which it's not) is the sender changing the header for his/her address?

Is there any way to find out who's actually sending the message? (not just an IP, but an actual login@xyz.com)

Wjlkgnsfb 22:17, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

If the sender hasn't put his login name in the mail then it can be impossible to figure out. The admin of the sending machine might see it in log files if he can be bothered to look, but even that is easily circumvented. Email sender addresses can be pretty easily forged with a little technical knowledge, only the IP address (or equivalent) of the sending machine remains. Weregerbil 12:39, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
and a very great deal of spam comes from zombie machines - so even if you could track the email back to the very machine that sent it, you'd just find some hapless dude whose machine was churning out spam, entirely without their knowledge. Middenface 20:03, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Old rogue game

I have a old version of Rogue on a 3 1/2 in floppy that I used to play on my old computer. I played it in Dos. On my new computer I can't seem to get it to work. It's a Sony VAOI with Windows XP Home Edition. Trying to open through the run prompt or the command prompt window I get a message saying that there is no ID address mark on the disk. I know I can just download a new version, but I really like the version I have (1.0 I think) and I don't want to lose the high scores. Any thoughts? --Joelmills 22:18, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Is the disk going bad? Is the floppy drive on the new computer bad? Is the floppy a MS-DOS floppy, or for some other operating system? Have you tried running the game under Dosbox? If the old computer still works, have you considered networking the two together and transferring the files from the floppy to the new computer's hard drive? --Serie 23:02, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
There's a few restored versions of Rogue at the Roguelike restoration Project. They have the first widely released version (3.6), which may be the version on your disk. So if that's it, you could at least get the version you like. If it's possible to retrieve the high scores file from the disk it might be possible to copy that into the Rogue folder and override the default one. I'm not sure if that would work though. Icey 13:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your help everybody. I think I'll just have to download a version. --Joelmills 02:58, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Firefox help

i got a new computer and downloaded firefox. on my old computer under options there was the catgory of tabbed browseing and i could chhose an option that make it so any links i middle click on would load in the background, on my new computer under options the catigory is now called tabs and i dont have the option to have middle clicked links load in the background? can you help is the an add-on i need to download?

oh and i have firefox version 1.5.0.6
Tab Mix Plus should do. --Seejyb 00:31, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
I don't use Tab Mix Plus and yet middle-click opens things in new tabs instead of windows, in the background. I've got "Force links that open new windows to open in: a new tab" selected, and I've got "Select new tabs opened from links" turned off. --Kjoonlee 00:35, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
I agree with kjoonlee, an extension isn't nessisary. Just go to tools-->options-->tabs uncheck "Select new tabs opened from links". Jon513 00:41, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
An extension will allow you to have more control though. --Proficient 21:26, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] iPod dysfunctional after connecting to Windows machine...

I have a friend with a 4th Generation iPod (I think). Several weeks ago, she hooked it up to another friend's Windows XP box -- the iPod hasn't worked correctly since, we don't think. I understand NOW that you can't use a Mac formatted iPod on a Windows machine and vice versa. I think connecting to the Windows Machine (which did work, by the way) did something crazy to the iPod that prevents it from working at all now. She can't connect to the device using her Mac anymore.... Bonus information: All of her music on the iPod and she has no backups -- losing the music will be bad.

Any ideas? Any help? Can I provide more information? --Chiacomo talk 23:49, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I have no idea. I would start by going to apple's ipod support page]. I couldn't find anything for you because I am not sure what you mean by not working so I don't know what to search for. Good luck. Jon513 06:23, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
I've seen this before with my shuffle. All I did was erase it, and it worked again. If your iPod can connect to your friend's box, then backup whatever files/sogns are on the iPod to there using a handy program. I don't know any names for Windows, but try searching at http://versiontracker.com — [Mac Davis] (talk)
There is a freeware program called Sharepod which allows you to get a full list of whats onyour ipod, then those songs can be transferred off any iPod which that program, to any computer, however the 'update to iPod' can be slightly suspect, so i recommend just taking songs off the iPod with that program L Trezise 21:43, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
NEW -I would recomend copying all the music file from the ipod on to a windows pc then coping the music onto a external harddisk (or DVD or CD's) then coping the music to a mac. This is a long process but i think it is the only way. You can copy music from an ipod onto a pc the following way:--

1. Open Explorer 2. Goto Tools>Folder Options. 3. Then click the View tab. 4. Goto the Hidden files and folders section and select "Show Hidden Files and Folders". Then click "OK" 5. Once the above is done connect your ipod to the windows pc your working on (not the one beside it!) 6. Goto Explore again and find you ipod and go into its subdirectory (i think thats what its called) 7. Now you should see a folder called iPod_Control (i've got a 5th generation ipod so i do not know if it is the same with older ipods). If i am wrong with the name of the folder then look for the folder that is a slightly lighter yellow than the others(now this depends on your theme- im doing these instructions using windows classic theme.)Once you found the hidden file go into it. 8. Copy the "Music" folder to your computer. 9. Now copy it to the mac and configure itunes. Remember to formate your ipod first into a mac.

You can stop showing hidden folders by undoing the above.

I hope this has solved your problem and i hope that a 4th generation ipod is slightly similar to a 5th generation ipod or all the above instructions are in valide.

JEZ

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