two computer problems
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| Author | Topic: two computer problems |
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Guardian
Member # 2339
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written Friday, August 26 2005 12:39
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My CD drive no longer spins disks in order to read them. Is there any way to fix this without replacing any computer parts? [ Saturday, August 27, 2005 10:17: Message edited by: Zephyr Tempest ] -------------------- *Blue screen error* NONEXISTANT WINDOWS ERROR Windows detects no current errors, so Windows has decided to screw around with the files until one occurs. If you never rise against your oppressor, then you've already lost. -Zephyr Tempest, your personal entertainer Posts: 1779 | Registered: Monday, December 9 2002 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 6068
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written Friday, August 26 2005 13:57
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I don't think so. Something probably just... snapped. More information, please? -------------------- "Sometimes I get all hungry! And then I catch some flies! They fly into my webs! They are really yummy guys!" -Spider Posts: 209 | Registered: Monday, July 4 2005 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Friday, August 26 2005 14:24
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Any computer component with moving parts will fail fairly often. All disk drives have moving parts. Therefore, they will fail fairly often. Unless you have a good reason to suspect it's a software problem, it's probably a hardware problem and fixing it will involve replacing parts. Sorry. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Master
Member # 4614
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written Friday, August 26 2005 16:23
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I had this problem just a little bit ago, and the problem was matter of fact the disk drive itself, as Thuryl said. If other CDs won't work either, you can't blame it on the game. I got a new CD drive, and everything works fine now. -------------------- -ben4808 For those who love to spam: CSM Forums RIFQ Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2339
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 10:21
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There is another problem. After uninstalling a game, my computer reported that it had 2.3 gigabytes of space left. Then, after restarting my computer to attempt to get it to read a CD, it reported that it had 1.18 gigabytes left (and after download a file that was 105 megabytes). What could have caused this sudden drop in avaliable space? I didn't install anything and the downloaded file was not large enough to take up 1.12 gigabytes. -------------------- *Blue screen error* NONEXISTANT WINDOWS ERROR Windows detects no current errors, so Windows has decided to screw around with the files until one occurs. If you never rise against your oppressor, then you've already lost. -Zephyr Tempest, your personal entertainer Posts: 1779 | Registered: Monday, December 9 2002 08:00 |
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Master
Member # 4614
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 13:43
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An inaccurate space reading, either before or after? -------------------- -ben4808 For those who love to spam: CSM Forums RIFQ Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2339
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 14:01
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Before or after what? The chances of the space reading being of by 1.12 gigabytes seems very unlikely. I had more space before I uninstalled the game (about 250 megabytes more than I have now, and I know that I downloaded something). Why was this moved to general? Is Technical support for Spidweb-related stuff only? After checking the size of all folders on the C drive, I should have 2.6033789 gigabytes left. Yet, Only 1.17 gigabytes free space is displayed. [ Saturday, August 27, 2005 14:19: Message edited by: Zephyr Tempest ] -------------------- *Blue screen error* NONEXISTANT WINDOWS ERROR Windows detects no current errors, so Windows has decided to screw around with the files until one occurs. If you never rise against your oppressor, then you've already lost. -Zephyr Tempest, your personal entertainer Posts: 1779 | Registered: Monday, December 9 2002 08:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 1468
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 17:15
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what operating system are you using? -------------------- "We can learn a lot from crayons. Some are short, some are dull, some are sharp, some are tall. Some have funny names and they are all different colors, but they all learn to live in the same box." "Happy is the man that has wisdom and gets discernment. For having wisdom as gain is better than having silver as gain and having wisdom as produce is better than gold itself" Proverbs 3:14-3:15 The horrible part about life is, you'll never get out of it alive. Currently boycotting: AngelFire, GameFAQ's Everybody should go to this site at least once. Posts: 818 | Registered: Tuesday, July 9 2002 07:00 |
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? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 17:29
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empty the bin and defrag the drive *this message arrives courtesy of yummy apple fritters* Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2339
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 18:19
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I use Windows 98 and my recycling bin is empty. I guess defragmentation will be necessary. -------------------- *Blue screen error* NONEXISTANT WINDOWS ERROR Windows detects no current errors, so Windows has decided to screw around with the files until one occurs. If you never rise against your oppressor, then you've already lost. -Zephyr Tempest, your personal entertainer Posts: 1779 | Registered: Monday, December 9 2002 08:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 3171
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 20:02
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For your cd-drive, if you can't get it to work, as a last ditch effort you could get a firmware update. It could fix it, or if it's working turn it into an expensive paperweight. Posts: 776 | Registered: Friday, July 4 2003 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 3040
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 20:25
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What about virtual memory? (do they have that on PCs?) On macs, sometimes the OS uses disk space as RAM, which results in less disk space being available for files. That may or may not be the problem here; I'm not sure if Windows does the same thing or, if it does, whether that would be reflected in the available space. -------------------- 5.0.1.0.0.0.0.1.0... Posts: 508 | Registered: Thursday, May 29 2003 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Saturday, August 27 2005 22:02
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Windows does indeed use virtual memory, although he'd have to have an awful lot of programs open at once to reduce available HD space by a gigabyte. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 1468
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written Sunday, August 28 2005 15:36
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please note that this could take anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours, so you should probably do this before you go to bed, and let it run overnight restart your computer, and while it's booting up, keep pressing F8 until you get an options menu. In that menu should be an option that says 'Command Prompt Only'. Choose it. wait for a few moments to let it load the command prompt. When it finishes you should se a line of text at the bottom that looks like this: C:\> When you get there, type "scandisk c: /surface /autofix", so it should look like this: C:\>scandisk c: /surface /autofix press enter, and let it run. that should fix the hard drive space problem BTW, my comp runs only the required programs upon bootup, has 512 mb of ram, and it takes like 750 mb of hard drive space for virtual memory. I think what it does is reserve space on the hard drive for virtual memory when you boot up [ Sunday, August 28, 2005 15:40: Message edited by: Eldibs ] -------------------- "We can learn a lot from crayons. Some are short, some are dull, some are sharp, some are tall. Some have funny names and they are all different colors, but they all learn to live in the same box." "Happy is the man that has wisdom and gets discernment. For having wisdom as gain is better than having silver as gain and having wisdom as produce is better than gold itself" Proverbs 3:14-3:15 The horrible part about life is, you'll never get out of it alive. Currently boycotting: AngelFire, GameFAQ's Everybody should go to this site at least once. Posts: 818 | Registered: Tuesday, July 9 2002 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2339
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written Sunday, August 28 2005 15:41
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quote:I received this oddly worded error when I attempted that fix: You typed parameters that are invalid for scandisk for windows. -------------------- *Blue screen error* NONEXISTANT WINDOWS ERROR Windows detects no current errors, so Windows has decided to screw around with the files until one occurs. If you never rise against your oppressor, then you've already lost. -Zephyr Tempest, your personal entertainer Posts: 1779 | Registered: Monday, December 9 2002 08:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 1468
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written Sunday, August 28 2005 15:47
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tell me exaclty what you did to get to that point -------------------- "We can learn a lot from crayons. Some are short, some are dull, some are sharp, some are tall. Some have funny names and they are all different colors, but they all learn to live in the same box." "Happy is the man that has wisdom and gets discernment. For having wisdom as gain is better than having silver as gain and having wisdom as produce is better than gold itself" Proverbs 3:14-3:15 The horrible part about life is, you'll never get out of it alive. Currently boycotting: AngelFire, GameFAQ's Everybody should go to this site at least once. Posts: 818 | Registered: Tuesday, July 9 2002 07:00 |
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Master
Member # 4614
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written Sunday, August 28 2005 17:21
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Or you could try Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Scan Disk (or Disk Cleanup, or whatever it says). Hmmm. Anyway, I never knew a computer could use a HD for RAM. I'd wager it's quite a bit slower memory when it has to resort to that. -------------------- -ben4808 For those who love to spam: CSM Forums RIFQ Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2759
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written Sunday, August 28 2005 23:13
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It's a matter of balance: up to a certain point, Virtual Memory makes the computer run faster because it effectively doubles your RAM, giving much quicker access to data. However, when your system RAM is low compared to your requirements, too much VM is required and you're constantly swapping RAM for disk space, which is slow. -------------------- Everything I know about the Avernum Trilogy: [ A1 | A2 | A3 ] Posts: 1104 | Registered: Monday, March 10 2003 08:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 1468
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written Monday, August 29 2005 04:10
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quote:No! You never want to run Scandisk from Windows, unless the DOS (Command Prompt) version tells you to do so. It's slower, and IMO less stable and tells you less about what it is doing. And Virtual Memory doesn't make the computer run faster at all, it makes it run slower. It just lets it run more (or bigger) programs than it could normally handle, by giving it more space -------------------- "We can learn a lot from crayons. Some are short, some are dull, some are sharp, some are tall. Some have funny names and they are all different colors, but they all learn to live in the same box." "Happy is the man that has wisdom and gets discernment. For having wisdom as gain is better than having silver as gain and having wisdom as produce is better than gold itself" Proverbs 3:14-3:15 The horrible part about life is, you'll never get out of it alive. Currently boycotting: AngelFire, GameFAQ's Everybody should go to this site at least once. Posts: 818 | Registered: Tuesday, July 9 2002 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2759
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written Monday, August 29 2005 06:51
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The point about VM is we're talking multitasking operating systems. Having more memory (even virtual memory), you can run more processes at once. So jobs are finished quicker, i.e. your computer runs quicker. But only up to a point. -------------------- Everything I know about the Avernum Trilogy: [ A1 | A2 | A3 ] Posts: 1104 | Registered: Monday, March 10 2003 08:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 1468
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written Monday, August 29 2005 08:01
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Yes, but it only uses virtual memory if there isn't enough room in physical memory to store what it needs. -------------------- "We can learn a lot from crayons. Some are short, some are dull, some are sharp, some are tall. Some have funny names and they are all different colors, but they all learn to live in the same box." "Happy is the man that has wisdom and gets discernment. For having wisdom as gain is better than having silver as gain and having wisdom as produce is better than gold itself" Proverbs 3:14-3:15 The horrible part about life is, you'll never get out of it alive. Currently boycotting: AngelFire, GameFAQ's Everybody should go to this site at least once. Posts: 818 | Registered: Tuesday, July 9 2002 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2339
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written Monday, August 29 2005 08:20
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Scandisk didn't help at all. It scanned the C drive and said I was supposed to have approximately 1 gigabyte left, even though there's not enough stuff on my C drive to take up 17.6 gigabytes (one gigabyte less than the total capacity). :( I'm going to have to use Disk Defragmenter. [ Monday, August 29, 2005 08:21: Message edited by: Zephyr Tempest ] -------------------- *Blue screen error* NONEXISTANT WINDOWS ERROR Windows detects no current errors, so Windows has decided to screw around with the files until one occurs. If you never rise against your oppressor, then you've already lost. -Zephyr Tempest, your personal entertainer Posts: 1779 | Registered: Monday, December 9 2002 08:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 1468
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written Monday, August 29 2005 09:13
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When you selected all the files on your drive, did you have your computer set to show hidden and system files and folders? [ Monday, August 29, 2005 09:14: Message edited by: Eldibs ] -------------------- "We can learn a lot from crayons. Some are short, some are dull, some are sharp, some are tall. Some have funny names and they are all different colors, but they all learn to live in the same box." "Happy is the man that has wisdom and gets discernment. For having wisdom as gain is better than having silver as gain and having wisdom as produce is better than gold itself" Proverbs 3:14-3:15 The horrible part about life is, you'll never get out of it alive. Currently boycotting: AngelFire, GameFAQ's Everybody should go to this site at least once. Posts: 818 | Registered: Tuesday, July 9 2002 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 2339
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written Monday, August 29 2005 09:27
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Yes, I set my computer to show all hidden and system files a long time ago. [ Monday, August 29, 2005 17:29: Message edited by: Zephyr Tempest ] -------------------- *Blue screen error* NONEXISTANT WINDOWS ERROR Windows detects no current errors, so Windows has decided to screw around with the files until one occurs. If you never rise against your oppressor, then you've already lost. -Zephyr Tempest, your personal entertainer Posts: 1779 | Registered: Monday, December 9 2002 08:00 |
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Master
Member # 4614
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written Monday, August 29 2005 17:24
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I wonder if possibly a section of your hard drive was damaged or something. I suppose that would limit access to certain files to that section, if you've experienced any such problem. Or maybe something was automatically installed on your computer via the Internet. You know, Windows Updates, service packs, etc. If disk defragmenter doesn't help the situation out, you may just have to accept the fact that your hard drive has only one gigabyte of space left. -------------------- -ben4808 For those who love to spam: CSM Forums RIFQ Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00 |
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