Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 July 21

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[edit] July 21

[edit] TRR 2: Electric Boogaloo!

I previously asked a question about replacing all of my RAM, but now it seems there's another issue. I think Crucial might have screwed up my order. You see, my laptop is a Toshiba Satellite model A105-S4021. My order for two 1-GB RAM sticks has arrived, but the receipt paper gives the description as follows:

Upgrade for a Toshiba Satellite A105-S4342 System 1GB 200 PIN SODIMM 128MX64 DDR2 PC2-5300

I'm pretty sure that I selected "S4021" when purchasing the upgrade, but the paper says "S4342." Do you think the RAM will still work? What would happen if I took out my existing RAM and replaced it with the new RAM, only to have the new RAM not work? I'm hoping that I haven't just lost $100.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 01:02, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

A lot of laptop models just have a base type and variation doesn't matter, for example, my HP DV13-something is still in the DV-1000 series. I suspect it's fine for that reason (A105), the fact that most laptops use SODIMM, and that if you bought your laptop in the last few years it uses DDR2. The worst that could happen is that the speed is off and your motherboard doesn't support 5300 and beeps at you, in which case you send it back. I give it a 95% probability it'll work fine, though. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 03:04, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Weeell, if you say so. Here goes!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 03:24, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Awww. I can't find anything to unscrew the memory cover. I've tried all of the knives in the kitchen, along with some other miscellany, to no avail...what? Like I'm expected to actually have a No. 1 Phillips screwdriver? Anyways, anybody have a suggestion as to how I can get the cover off?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 04:34, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Your laptop should come with instructions on how to get to the internals. If it doesn't check the site for manuals. And you're doing computer work without a screwdriver!?!? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 04:58, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Well I have like three identical booklets detailing what I have to do, but I realized that I don't have a No. 1 Phillips screwdriver! But I have a No. 2...oh, the irony. I thought I could use some big knife! Their edges are usually just the right size to unscrew tiny Phillips screws. Sigh...to the garage! Maybe I could find something there...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 18:52, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Yesss! Go me! Go me! It's my birthday! I found a screwdriver in the mysterious "tewl-bocks," pried the cover open, and quadrupled my RAM. It's like defusing a bomb, one mistake and you could lose it all. Thanks for all the help, Wooty! But one more thing: what should I do with the old 512MB module? eBay, perhaps?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 19:34, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Since it's DDR2 and 512MB, someone'll probably buy it at a high price. eBay is probably your best bet. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 21:21, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Yay! But how am I going to ship it? It's obviously sensitive, and the only static-free bags I have are the ripped ones the new modules came in. Right now the old module's just sitting uselessly on the desk. Know I'm asking a lot of questions...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
RAM usually isn't too sensitive compared to, say, the CPU as far as static goes. I'd put it in the ripped static bag and tape around the rips and the memory inside with duct or electrical tape. Really, though, don't be too concerned, most of the memory I've bought actually comes in plastic cases. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 05:57, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Alrighty then! Thanks for everything!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:28, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
Just in case you don't know, be sure to ship it in a rigid box, not in an envelope. StuRat 03:50, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Faking a real Bsod

Contrary to what you may believe, I intend this for something other than pulling a prank.

I'm using XP. I need to figure out a way to make a Bsod occur. As in, I can schedule when exactly it will happen. I would like to emulate a Bsod what would occur if they're was trouble reading drive C: (the main drive on my computer). Also perhaps things to do with Hard Disk errors, and the worst possible Bsod ever (can't really think of the worst kind of error). The only way to make it go away would be to press and hold a certain key combination (like Shift + Tab + Enter + Alt, then it would go back to the desktop). Is this possible?

Cheers. --4.227.2.16 05:16, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

I think SysInternals has a BSoD screensaver. Splintercellguy 10:16, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Here — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 11:32, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
2000 and XP contain a registry key that you can create that will allow you to force the system to crash. I don't know if this is what you want... It's called "CrashOnCtrlScroll", so Google should explain the rest, I don't remember it that well. 68.39.174.238 15:12, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Ah yes, I remember that. It just manually dumps kernel memory or something to a log so you can examine it for troubleshooting/debugging issues. I didn't think it was still called CrashOnCtrlScroll in xp though.. --frotht 16:22, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why NAND and NOR and not AND, OR and NOT?

This always seemed like some implicitly accepted reality in college, that while building simple PCBs and such we had to deal with NAND, NOR and NOT logic gates. Why not AND, OR and NOT? Would there be some technical reason why, in addition to NOT, the chips we were given were NAND and NOR and not AND and OR? --156.34.212.150 05:39, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

The articles on NOR gate and NAND gate hint at some of the reasons: NAND and NOR are functionally complete (you can produce any logical function from them), easy and compact to implement at the transistor level (two transistors in a typical NAND gate vs three in an AND gate), and with a little bit of thinking and design cleverness require relatively few gates to produce desired functionality. Weregerbil 09:16, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mame

How do you run mame and play a games on it? I tried using command prompt and my documents and settings keeps on popping up on command prompt. --124.183.189.64 06:46, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

You can navigate in command prompt using the "cd" command: "cd C:\Program Files\MAME", or wherever. David Mestel(Talk) 07:55, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
You're better off using the Windows version: MAME32. (Get the one marked MAME32b.) It lets you run games from a menu instead of a command prompt. --jh51681 21:26, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fonts in firefox

I would like to use Firefox, but lettering looks worse with it compared to viewing the same page with IE. I searched for the answer to this, and found many related complaints, but not a clear, quick solution for a non-IT person like myself. (my OS is Win xp and firefox v2.0.0.2) ike9898 15:14, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean by worse lettering? Can you maybe provide us with a side by side comparison screenshot of what it looks like in IE and Firefox? --antilivedT | C | G 21:33, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Diagonals in letters and italic fonts look 'pixelated' or jagged, rather than smooth. It isn't awful, it just looks sort of low-budget. ike9898 22:16, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Turn on ClearType. Right-click on your desktop and select Properties. Click the Appearance tab then the Effects... button. Make sure the second checkbox is ticked and select ClearType in the dropdown underneath. — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 22:40, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
The fonts should be the same on FF as on IE. It's on the new Safari browser you want to watch out for: they import the font types from the Apple. The Evil Spartan 22:42, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
IE7 uses ClearType by default even if it's not set in the control panel, so Firefox/IE text rendering isn't necessarily the same — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 22:45, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
You are right,problem solved! Thanks, ike9898 03:08, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Windows Media Player 10 - 1 song, 2 albums

Let's say we have one very popular song, this song is on a bunch of different albums, is there any way in WMP10 to make that one song appear on all those albums without having to copy the song a few times. --de_matthew 17:19, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

What if, under the album field, you try separating the two album names with a semicolon or something. I think if you do that with artist names for songs with multiple artists it makes the song show up under both artist headings, maybe it would work for albums too.Mix Lord 00:30, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] AIM screen name problems

For over a year now I've been using a clone of AIM called AIM Ad Hack without any problems, but just last month I've been getting this message within a minute or two after logging in:

AOL Instant Messenger: You have been disconnected from the AOL Instant Message Service (SM) for accessing the AOL network using unauthorized software. You can download a FREE, fully featured, and authorized client, here
 < http://www.aol.com/aim/download2.html >.

So I went ahead and uninstalled AIM Ad Hack, installed the standard AIM, and logged in. After a minute it kicked me off again with the same message! It does this with both the stable and beta versions of AIM 6.1, AIM 5.9, AIM Express, and with Trillian too. Is my screen name flagged now or something?

I've posted about this at two of the AOL boards (here and here) but I haven't gotten a solution yet.

Has anyone heard of this happening before? My computer lets me use other screen names but something is wrong with my jh51681 name. I've checked my AIM.com email but never received a message saying the name is banned. I've scanned for viruses using Norton and AVG with the latest definitions but nothing came up. I've had a friend try connecting with the name and he got disconnected too.

AIM.com has a "Report a Problem" page but it requires you to acknowledge that you won't get a reply. I need to contact AOL directly but I'm not a member anymore so apparently I don't have access to the live support section. The FAQ and support pages don't help either. Any ideas?

--jh51681 22:40, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Can you still talk to people even after receiving the message?
No, within seconds of receiving it I get disconnected. --jh51681 03:59, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Is there an alternate server I can use to connect, other than login.oscar.aol.com or toc.oscar.aol.com? --jh51681 08:29, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Try using AIM Express and see if you get disconnected from there. If so, it's definitely their end. 68.39.174.238 18:28, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
To quote myself: "It does this with both the stable and beta versions of AIM 6.1, AIM 5.9, AIM Express, and with Trillian too" and Meebo and Pidgin. --jh51681 19:23, 22 July 2007 (UTC)