Ha, don't worry about it. I'm just glad that it got all figured out.

What the fuck. Okay, when I worked at Dell doing the same thing these idiots are doing, we would have given you one. Especially if you kicked up a fuss about it. I honestly suggest calling them back-- don't be mean, don't swear, but tell them you're really upset with HP because you called in for help and you weren't told that was an option which was the whole reason you tried to install a different copy of XP. Remember the OEM I kept on mentioning on the phone? That's the disc you want-- HP's copy of windows. And I know for a fact those things are cheap as borscht, they just don't want to pay the shipping. Call them back-- it's their fault because they actually told you you couldn't have that option in the first place, that your only option was to send it in. You should be able to have that disc for free.

Fucking outsourcers

Yasha wrote:

What the fuck. Okay, when I worked at Dell doing the same thing these idiots are doing, we would have given you one. Especially if you kicked up a fuss about it. I honestly suggest calling them back-- don't be mean, don't swear, but tell them you're really upset with HP because you called in for help and you weren't told that was an option which was the whole reason you tried to install a different copy of XP. Remember the OEM I kept on mentioning on the phone? That's the disc you want-- HP's copy of windows. And I know for a fact those things are cheap as borscht, they just don't want to pay the shipping. Call them back-- it's their fault because they actually told you you couldn't have that option in the first place, that your only option was to send it in. You should be able to have that disc for free.

Fucking outsourcers

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely give them a call tomorrow.  The most DICK thing was, the last time I called them, I talked to the SAME DAMN OPERATOR.  Yes, Muhammed, I called YOU last month.  Yes, Muhammed, it's the same damn problem.  Yes, Muhammed, that's Wakan on my desktop, you can stop trying to make small-talk while we delete shit off of my flash drive on my desktop computer in order to put some drivers onto my laptop in order to try to fix the problem.  "You COULD HAVE gotten the disc for freeeeeee, but unfortunatelyyy, you have to pay $15!" I'm not paying $15 for an XP disc.  I don't even spend $15 on a music CD. 

Last edited by winksniper (07-11-2010 11:06:33 PM)

W3 schools used to be pretty good.

Thank you muchly! I shall probably buy the book and write it off as an official expense for the newspaper.

Bring it back to tiger direct with all the packaging and the receipt and tell them what the issue is. Gio and I have dealt with them before and they're usually pretty good about things like that.

You're welcome, hon!

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I just checked my copy and it does have an option under effects for normalizing a full track.

Hey guys. I had a little question I put over in the random conversation thread, an Satyr suggested I ask here as well/instead, since some forumites who know about pc's would probably be more likely to poke their noses in this thread than that one. So ....

Question: My PC is dying. It's been a slow and steady process. I don't know exactly when it will give out on me, but I'm sort of expecting it to in the moderately near future at this point. This has me thinking about a replacement PC. It might be nice to get the replacement while I can still use the internet to order on this one. At least, it would be nice to look at parts and reviews and stuff on the internet here. So I'm trying to find an on-line store that will build one for me. I know a lot of people say it's easy to build yourself, but I'm inept in these matters and would break things. Trust me. I know myself. In a company that will do this for me, I'm also (ideally) looking for one that doesn't stamp their name/logo obnoxiously on the finished product. If they don't charge a metric ton for putting it together, even better.

Does anyone know a good/trustworthy website that can have a PC set up for me at a (somewhat) reasonable fee? It might sound pretty dumb, but I have a sort-of specific desire for a certain aesthetics regarding the case. Currently I have the 1000SE from Zalman. I don't know much about how well cases work with x,y,z, and what not. But I'd like to end up with this case again, or one very much like it (Simple, fairly large full-tower, matte black, no shiny lights or windows). It's almost entirely a matter of looks for me, but I feel like windows would make it harder to install sound dampening stuff as well? Anyways. If anyone knew of an internet shop that I could literally send that case to and have them build a pc in it for me, or one that could order that case on my behalf and then build a pc in, that would be perfect. If not, just anywhere that sells a reasonably similar full-tower design would work.

Aesthetics aside, I'm mostly looking for an online store that can build me a high-end PC that will last for a (long) while, can fit a top end graphics card, multiple hard drives, and can help fix my incompetance so I don't end up installing an electric source insufficient for my graphics card, or a mother board that doesn't work with whatever, etc. So, you know. People to advise/work with a little. I don't mind spending a bunch on this and am basically expecting to but, like I said, if the store doesn't have a ridiculously hefty surcharge for doing the assembly that would be nice.

I know several people recommended NewEgg. I got my current pc there a few years back when there was an offer to get it built on that Site. I can't find this offer anymore, so unless I'm missing something I guess it's no longer available. Even if they did, this dying computer problem has me a bit sour on them. It's /probably/ got nothing to do with them whatsoever, but part of me feels like they were negligent in some regard. I didn't have the best ordering experience either.

Some other people recommended FalconNW. I feel like they add a fairly hefty surcharge for this, and I'm not crazy about having a bird logo on my case, but they do have some basically black matte cases. And its nice knowing people who have recommended them. I've found some other site on my own, and they look nice, but I'm really hesitant to make a 3-4k dollar purchase on a site I know absolutely nothing about, that hasn't been recommended to me by anyone at all. I'm sure most of those are perfectly legitimate small businesses that do a pretty good job, but yeah.

I suppose it would probably also be possible to save my pc by finding what's going wrong specifically and replacing it (I suspect my SSD has gotten damaged somehow). I kind of wouldn't mind using this opportunity to start from scratch though, and put something new together. So I'm leaning heavily in that direction rather than the "let's try to fix it" one.

Thanks, if any of you have any advice!

bella wrote:

Problem 1: I locked myself out of my laptop; I can't remember the password to log in. I didn't write it down anywhere and I didn't make a password recovery disk. Every password hacking tool that I've tried (downloaded on my other computer) has either failed or been way too difficult for me to understand/use. Therefore, I have no idea how to log back into my laptop, and I'm worried that I'll have to reinstall Windows Vista to get access to it again. I know that doing this will erase all of my files, which would suck, because I need them for my grad school applications. If someone has any ideas about what can be done, PLEASE let me know!

Have you tried this method? Basically what it does is has you use your vista disc to get at command prompt, then you reset the password from command prompt.

If you haven't used command prompt much, the only thing to remember is that when you type in a command it has to be exact, otherwise your computer goes lol what are you talking about and then you have to retype it. Pain in the ass, I do that all the time.

bella wrote:

Problem 2: The message "build 7601, windows not genuine" appeared when I booted up my other computer today. I know that I'm using a genuine version of windows; I've been using it for 6+ months without this message showing up, so I don't know why it's showing up now or how to fix it, really. I've tried running WAT Fix, but I'm not sure if that solved the problem or not. Any suggestions?

Check in Control Panel-->System, at the bottom of the page. It should say "Windows is activated." Or reboot and see if it happens again. Not much to do other than that-- if something goes wrong and you can't get into the computer, write down the support number for microsoft somewhere. Their tech support isn't too bad.

Do you have your activation code? If so, try re-entering it and see if that fixes it. I know that was one of the suggested fixes I saw when I researched. You should be able to do it by clicking on the activation unknown status.

No problem, sweetheart. I'm glad it's working

It should be fine, just keep an eye out for any weird things that happen on your computer. If you want some extra security, find out what the driver is for the SD card reader and disable it so that the computer can't use it. You know where Device Manager is, right? Check in there to see if you can find the SD card reader listed. Or give me a screenshot and I'll check the drivers for you.

Actually, if you google around, you might be able to find out how to disassemble your SD card reader too, although I wouldn't bother with it unless it does start messing with your computer. It shouldn't, but there's always a chance.