The video driver is 9 months out of date so I'm updating it. 

No dice with that. 

What'd be a good place to start learning about setting up a RAID, the different RAID types, what the benefits are, that sort of thing-- in a little less technical speak then average? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_RAID_levels 

the only ones to bother learning are 0 1 5 and 1+0 

Or if you've got the dough, RAID 10

Geo, when you boot into safe mode, does add/remove work there? Only reason I ask is that maybe some other program is stopping that dll from loading properly 

Can't get my microphone to pick up sound. I've made sure everything is unmuted in both the Windows volume controls and my sound card (RealTek HD Audio Manager) and still nothing. And I made sure its plugged into the right jack. RealTek recognizes a mic is plugged in, however only in the back jack, connected directly to the sound card.

What's strange is that when I run the audio device test through the Windows control panel, it only picks up sounds the computer makes, as though its recording the computer's audio. I even plugged in headphones, to be sure, and it still said it was detecting sounds from the computer. I don't mean like ambient computer sounds. I mean sounds like the ding that sounds when an alert pops up or something.

It's like the wire are crossed or something. Any ideas?

I'm on Windows XP, SP3, with an MSI motherboard, with RealTek HD Audio. 

right click ur speaker icon
open volume control
Options->Properties
Recording - OK
check Microphone 

Got some strange results.

I'm using this mic/head phone set that came with an old cellphone. In doing another device test, I discovered that the headphone part of the whole device was functioning as input microphones. Each ear piece serving as left and right microphone.

So at least it works, in a strange backwards method. However, it doesn't really work. It does this horrible feedback thing, where it would hardly pick anything up, but when it did it would loop and grow into a painful pulsing shriek. 

I'm looking for a good replacement for my wireless adapter for my desktop. I currently have a Linksys WUSB54G (Ver 1 or 2, I don't have it with me at the moment). It's been fine, except that now it won't be recognized by some of the USB ports on my box. I've looked into this error online, with no good resolution. Can anyone suggest a nice alternate? 

get a PCI one 

Allow me to rephrase..

What's a reliable, inexpensive wireless adapter for a desktop PC that you would recommend? I haven't found a reliable review roundup that I trust, yet. 

How about the latest Linksys?
Or, can you run a network cable? 

Physical cable is not currently an option, the cable modem and router are stuck near the x-box or dvr or something in my main entertainment center that doesn't have wireless.

I'm thinking Linksys, but this problem is still alive in the latest versions, it seems. 

i would buy a usb adapter that matches the brand of the router... other than that, check newegg reviews 

Admiral Sackbar said:

Got some strange results.

I'm using this mic/head phone set that came with an old cellphone. In doing another device test, I discovered that the headphone part of the whole device was functioning as input microphones. Each ear piece serving as left and right microphone.

So at least it works, in a strange backwards method. However, it doesn't really work. It does this horrible feedback thing, where it would hardly pick anything up, but when it did it would loop and grow into a painful pulsing shriek.

Ideas? Would a USB mic get around whatever this problem is? 

you're using a cell phone mic for a computer?

yeah...those things are wired often for just the phone, or just a set of phones

a USB mic may indeed get around your problem 

Trouble reaching web host

I host several websites with ion-web.com, both personally and for clients. In the last few weeks, I've had increasing trouble with getting to those sites from my office. The office is on an AT&T (sbcglobal.net) DSL. When I do a 'tracert' to my website (arothman.com) from the office, I get as far as hop 13 - po2.fcr01.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com - and it dies. When I trace route to the same URL from our Level3.net connection, I get to po1.fcr01.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com and then right on through to my website. My admin here at the office says our routers and such are behaving normally, and ion-web.com says everything is fine at their end... is this something I need to take up with AT&T? 

yes 

dies it work fine everywhere else? 

I'd suggest that, yes

they're going to tell you it's your fault, so I'd also suggest somehow bringing in a totally new to the office laptop and using that to tracert, and telling them "look, i even brought this in just for this, it's NEVER been here, and it's doing the same thing"

somewhere things are getting crossed up. assuming your admin has ensured his routes are clean, it's gotta be outside your wall.

(you could also go the easy route and put entries in your host file if it's just you who it's affecting the work of) 

arent cell phone thingers usually 3/32" not 1/8" ?? 

Yeah, it's really only affecting me. Basically means I can't update the websites of my clients on that host (including my own) without doing a remote-desktop to an offsite machine. The pain is that I'm not the technical contact for our DSL... I don't even know what phone number it's associated with. The chances of me getting anyone who knows anything involved are slim. How would I twiddle the host file to get around this crap? 

arent cell phone thingers usually 3/32" not 1/8" ??

not always 

http://geekswithblogs.net/thibbard/archive/2006/12/13/ChangingYourHostsFileInVis ta.aspx

and more broadly

%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ by default. Actual location defined in Registry key \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\DataBaseP ath.

Users of 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003, Server 2008, and Vista (but not Windows 7) cannot access the HOSTS file with a 32-bit editor.

basically it's just a line that says this address equals this hostname 

Geodave, did you get anywhere on your weird issue today? 

I've had no progress whatsoever, no. 

did you know "only AVG's free state-of-the-art link scanner technology keeps you safe on today's web?" 

I feel stupid and I'm sure it's a product of 200 hours of working on this crap, but I don't get the Generic Host Process error in safe mode.

Could it be a driver causing all this bullshit? 

yes
is that sql server 2005 on there? 

SQL Server is not installed, and updating the drivers has not fixed anything. 

So my Acer Aspire One seems to have a BSOD issue.

I had the problems in Vista and upgraded to Vista and that didn't seem to help.
I've probably cashed about 15 times in the last 5 days.
The most common error seems to be with msrpc.sys, but there are others.
It seems most prone to crashing under a heavy workload, but it has crashed while I'm doing nothing as well.
Any places I should start to try and resolve this? 

Click start, type eventvwr.msc and run that.
See if there are any red errors in System or Application.

Or any of the resulting folders, really. The error events should correspond to your BSOD's. 

Ive got an MSI U120 netbook, and last night i downloaded a program which, once i ran gave
me the BSOD and shut down. Now, when i start it up again, I get a message saying windows
shut down unexpectedly and whether to start normally, using last good configuration or in safe
mode etc. If i pick last good config or start normally, the windows xp splash screen starts for
3-4 seconds before i get a really quick BSOD and the computer restarts. When i pick safe
mode, it just loads some drivers and restarts, goign through the same cycle again.

Im pretty sure that the program i ran was a virus or worm or whatever, and i get the feeling ill
have to reinstall windows. Problem is, as its a netbook, Ive not got a dvd drive, or a cd with
windows from which to boot from. Anybody got any advice? The fact im in korea doesnt help
either, as trying to get a computer fixed here in english is as awkward as getting a korean
computer fixed in the US

Any advice or directions to support sites people could give me would be great. Im currently
beginning to look myself at work to see what I can find. 

ARE YOU ALSO FIXING THIS COMPUTER SUSPENDED OVER A PIT OF HUNGRY ALLIGATORS BY A ROPE WHICH IS GRADUALLY BECOMING MORE AND MORE FRAYED 

I have no idea what these mean.

Prompt at Restart said:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1000008e
BCP1: C0000005
BCP2: 8757385F
BCP3: AA543AC0
BCP4: 00000000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Event Viewer said:

+ System
- Provider
[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}
EventID 41
Version 2
Level 1
Task 63
Opcode 0
Keywords 0x8000000000000002
- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2009-11-03T05:42:35.126815200Z
EventRecordID 3657
Correlation
- Execution
[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8
Channel System
Computer SoBe-PC
- Security
[ UserID] S-1-5-18
- EventData
BugcheckCode 142
BugcheckParameter1 0xc0000005
BugcheckParameter2 0x8757385f
BugcheckParameter3 0xaa543ac0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

 

relative,

There may be instructions to create a windows install you can run from
a usb stick if you have access to a different computer with a cd burner.

I just bought an external dvd drive for my netbook. 

Yeah im going to try that, found an article here giving step by step instructions for installing from a usb on a netbook 

retalivity: In the last two weeks I have seen 2 machines with the same thing not that it helps your problem.

Anyhow try to make a bootable usb memory stick with some Bart PE tools and try to remove it. However both the machines I saw had missing and corrupted system files so I had to just reinstall windows on both. 

Geo, if you don't get the same error in safe mode then its a service/process that is starting up when the computer boots normally that is moving, replacing, or corrupting that .dll, try booting normally, typing msconfig in the run command and stopping all non-microsoft services from starting as well as removing everything you feel safe removing from the startup tab, then reboot and see if that fixes your issue

retalivity, have you tried booting in safe mode? does it work? also, if it does, try booting into safe mode with networking and downloading a copy of malwarebytes and combofix as well as copies of spybot s&d and either avg or avira anti-virus and running those in safe mode, make sure you've got the latest definitions for S&D and either avg or avira before you run them 

Anyone know of a reputable IT company that would be willing to build a small server for a small business in southwest Michigan? 

Build and house or just build? Cause if I remember correctly that's kinda close to dedpoets territory and ue might be willing to do it for some extra dough, and he definitely knows his shit 

It would be build/rework existing depending on recommendations.

The server is housed on site. 

Disabling as much of the hardware as I could, and disabling all running programs on boot did not resolve the error.

Nor have I gotten my 1 business day response from microsoft. 

Just spent most of the morning arguing why essential backup data shouldn't be performed on a 512 flash stick, and an unprotected shared drive.

can anyone in the know, give me proper factual reasons other than repeatedly slamming heads into keyboards.
i 'get' why, but lack the proper terminology and concise surrounding knowledge 

Take the flash stick, hide it behind a whiteboard eraser.
Move the files to a secretly-named folder on the shared drive.

Ask them to find the files 

offer $20 to someone to go get you that flash stick, when its gone and they can't find it, pull it out and tell them all their important company data just cost you $20, and inform them that you hope that its worth more to them than that, because if its not, they're not getting it back, and tell them Joe Blow just emailed you copies of what was on the shared drive 

Ok, strange one here...

One pc in my office. XP Pro. autorun will not work on the CD-ROM...no matter what I try. Checked user rights, removed/re-installed cd-rom in device manager. Updated the driver, checked registry settings, installed updates, updated bios, checked everything that Microsoft said to, and everything is fine. Tried a different cd-rom for kicks. Nothing. I can only get it to work by right click, then click autoplay. I have probably 12 similar pc's in the office, all identical setups, and they all work except this one. There is no 3rd party software (nero, easycd, etc) on the machine over riding windows settings. I am stumped, or having a brain fart.
any clues? 

is the IMAPI cd service started? 

The only thing I see is IMAPI Cd-burning service, and it is set to manual, and currently stopped.