[Dina Boudreau]

Bumping my above post. >_<

[Prisca Lacour]

So, things have gone bad over here. After a series of crashes, when I start my PC it seems it can't find my hard drive (After the motherboard logo what appears is this message: "Reboot and select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Drive and press a key"). I just sent an e-mail to the firm I bought the components from (they built it as well and sent the finished thing to me) about sending the hard drive in, but I'd like to get a second opinion from here (I've been in contact with them before, and while they're very helpful, they're not very fast) about a few things:

- First, I bought components and not a pre-built rig from the major retailer because everyone said it was cheaper and not very complex. However, I'm not very tech-savvy, so I'm not sure it's the hard drive that's been failing. My crashes seemed to appear at random, but more often when I played games. Once the bluescreen appeared it wouldn't boot up successfully for an hour or so (bluescreen after loading Windows or the message "Reboot and select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Drive and press a key"). I couldn't really find any specific info on the error codes. I ran a memory test and Malwarebytes (Anti-virus search would always cause crash before finishing) and those found no errors or virus.

- Should I check the connections between hard drive and the motherboard? Or could that even cause errors like this?

- If I need to send the hard drive back, how do I wipe it before I send it if the motherboard doesn't even find the HD (actually, how do I wipe it even if it did find it)? I've read enough on this forum to not send my private data away to someone I don't know.

[leigh stewart]

Right now I use Firefox 4 and Opera as my backup browser but am looking to try others. I know Google Chrome has alot of personal information that gets collected so I looked at Chromium but can't tell if it is the same way. I also found a browser based on the Chromium code called Iron that claims to collect and store no personal information so it looked interesting. Any input on the subject?

[Scott Clemmons]

Right now I use Firefox 4 and Opera as my backup browser but am looking to try others. I know Google Chrome has alot of personal information that gets collected so I looked at Chromium but can't tell if it is the same way. I also found a browser based on the Chromium code called Iron that claims to collect and store no personal information so it looked interesting. Any input on the subject?

Not intended to make you feel silly or anything, but from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_%28web_browser%29:
"The project's hourly Chromium snapshots appear essentially similar[2] to the latest builds of Google Chrome aside from the omission of certain Google additions, most noticeable among them: Google's brand, auto-update mechanism, click-through licensing terms, usage-tracking, ..."

:)

[Cameron Garrod]

Not intended to make you feel silly or anything, but from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_%28web_browser%29:
"The project's hourly Chromium snapshots appear essentially similar[2] to the latest builds of Google Chrome aside from the omission of certain Google additions, most noticeable among them: Google's brand, auto-update mechanism, click-through licensing terms, usage-tracking, ..."

:)

I must have missed that when I was lookign it up. I think I will give Iron a go using the portable version and see how it is. I don't lan to switch permanently but I figure it can't hurt to learn other browsers for support purposes.

[Barbequtie]

I appear to have hit a snag in my PC building. It looks as though I have everything hooked up correctly and it even kinda sorta boots up, except that it stops and continues this process for...well forever as far as I can tell of booting turning off and booting again...the monitor does not even have time to register that the computer has turned on before it shuts off. Those of you who remember my topic from a while back may know this is my first time building a PC so I may have simply made a careless mistake. My build consists of these parts:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130574

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824262011

I have spent the last 4-6hours trying to get this thing together so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Alba Casas]

I appear to have hit a snag in my PC building. It looks as though I have everything hooked up correctly and it even kinda sorta boots up, except that it stops and continues this process for...well forever as far as I can tell of booting turning off and booting again...the monitor does not even have time to register that the computer has turned on before it shuts off. Those of you who remember my topic from a while back may know this is my first time building a PC so I may have simply made a careless mistake. My build consists of these parts:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102914

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130574

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824262011

I have spent the last 4-6hours trying to get this thing together so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Did you plug in both motherboard power connectors, as well as the graphics card power connector(s)?

[jeremey wisor]

well, that was certainly an embarrassing mistake hehe :facepalm: i cant believe i missed an entire power chord. many thanks, now to stumble through the rest.

[Noely Ulloa]

well, that was certainly an embarrassing mistake hehe :facepalm: i cant believe i missed an entire power chord. many thanks, now to stumble through the rest.

Common mistake.

[carrie roche]

ok this looks(read hopefully) to be my last snag i have many many SATA cables but cannot seem to be able to get my HDD to be detected no matter the combination or the cable. with the case there is a red cable w/ a black connector and i have like 7 white SATA cables which goes to HDD and which goes to MB and in what order? this appears to be my final hurdle to firing the new PC up for good.

[Astargoth Rockin' Design]

ok this looks(read hopefully) to be my last snag i have many many SATA cables but cannot seem to be able to get my HDD to be detected no matter the combination or the cable. with the case there is a red cable w/ a black connector and i have like 7 white SATA cables which goes to HDD and which goes to MB and in what order? this appears to be my final hurdle to firing the new PC up for good.

Never heard of a white SATA cable... you mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ATA_cables.jpg of cable? That's the wrong type.

Use the red one, plug the HDD into SATA0 and the DVD-ROM into SATA1.

[Crystal Birch]

the red one is actually connected by one end into my tower somewhere near the top, the white sata cables are the ones in this pic http://www.newegg.com/Product/ImageGallery.aspx?CurImage=13-130-574-Z05&SpinSet=13-130-574-RS&ISList=13-130-574-Z01%2c13-130-574-Z02%2c13-130-574-Z03%2c13-130-574-Z04%2c13-130-574-Z05&S7ImageFlag=1&Item=N82E16813130574&Depa=0&WaterMark=1&Description=MSI%20P67A-GD65%20%28B3%29%20LGA%201155%20Intel%20P67%20SATA%206Gb%2fs%20USB%203.0%20ATX%20Intel%20Motherboard the only slots im seeing are SATA 1_2, 3_4, 5_6(these two are black the rest are white) and 7_8 on the right hand side of the motherboard.

[Elena Alina]

the red one is actually connected by one end into my tower somewhere near the top, the white sata cables are the ones in this pic http://www.newegg.com/Product/ImageGallery.aspx?CurImage=13-130-574-Z05&SpinSet=13-130-574-RS&ISList=13-130-574-Z01%2c13-130-574-Z02%2c13-130-574-Z03%2c13-130-574-Z04%2c13-130-574-Z05&S7ImageFlag=1&Item=N82E16813130574&Depa=0&WaterMark=1&Description=MSI%20P67A-GD65%20%28B3%29%20LGA%201155%20Intel%20P67%20SATA%206Gb%2fs%20USB%203.0%20ATX%20Intel%20Motherboard the only slots im seeing are SATA 1_2, 3_4, 5_6(these two are black the rest are white) and 7_8 on the right hand side of the motherboard.

Oh that red one is probably for the case LED and power switch, or it could be the front panel USB or front panel audio; those get connected directly to the motherboard.

If you don't start with SATA0 then just put your HDD in the first slot and the DVD-ROM in the next one. Check your instruction manual if the printing on the motherboard is confusing.

[D LOpez]

This is mighty strange, but I let it continue to windows installation and windows detected my HD just fine but at post I get a message that says "No Hard Disk Detected!". I have windows installing right now (albeit slowly so im not sure if it is all a-ok yet). I assume it would have said something when began to install windows 7 rather than allowing me to go to the Installing Windows... screen, if in fact my HD was unavailable?

EDIT: yep all is well windows installed perfectly and everything seems to be running fine. Thanks your help (as well as those in my first topic who gave me advice on what to buy in the first place) I can say my first building operation was a success. I must say its quite a nice feeling knowing that the computer that I have is one that I pieced together.

[Red Bevinz]

Quick Q: is there anything I have to be particularly mindful of when setting up an SSD for the first time and installing Windows 7 on it as primary OS?

[Kieren Thomson]

What's a good LGA1155 motherboard?

I've found out that the motherboard I currently have (which I bought near original launch) cannot overclock my 2500k, and I don't really like the BIOS interface anyways.

[Verity Hurding]

What's a good LGA1155 motherboard?

I've found out that the motherboard I currently have (which I bought near original launch) cannot overclock my 2500k, and I don't really like the BIOS interface anyways.

Asus P8P67 Pro
Gigabyte P67A-UD4
MSI P67A GD65

[Maria Garcia]

It appears that I'm in constant need of a second opinion. Hahaha, that and I'm not necessarily informed on network hardware(in this case). I require a new 8-port router because my devices seem to be growing in number. My current set-up is a cable modem that connects to my 4-port Belkin router, which has three PCs and an Xbox running into it. My subscription is 15Mb/s down, but I'm not getting it and I believe it's because both my router and modem are ancient. I'm unsure of a reasonable price range for a router and what specs I should look for besides it being DOCSIS 3.0. If the dl speed would be greater affected by my modem, I would appreciate a recommendation for that as well as the router. Thank you in advanced, guys. ^.^

Have you tried plugging a PC directly into the modem to see if you are getting a good connection speed? Make sure you try this a few times throughout the day. Your ISP may be throttling the users on a busy node at certain times of the day. (Mine throttles me usually between 7-10PM dropping my connection from 12Mbps to about 3Mbps.)

Quick Q: is there anything I have to be particularly mindful of when setting up an SSD for the first time and installing Windows 7 on it as primary OS?

Make sure defrag is disabled.
Make sure TRIM is enabled. (It should be by default, but making sure is always good.)

To check TRIM, open up CMD as administrator and then type:
fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
(if it equals 0 then it is enabled.)

Also I usually disable superfetch and prefetch since there is no need for it on a SSD really.

If you have another HDD in the machine, you should change the page file to the spindle drive to help keep the drive thrashing down on the SSD to save writes. (I keep mine on a 8GB partition on my Velociraptor, but a 4GB partition for that is good enough) Or if you have 6GB or higher RAM you may want to disable the page file altogether.

[Kari Depp]

Ok, just started having this issue this morning. When I boot up my computer, it doesn't want to go past the loading screen of windows. It won't let me boot in safe mode either. Is this an hd issue or what? Thanks.
(XP here)

[Gaelle Courant]

Ok, just started having this issue this morning. When I boot up my computer, it doesn't want to go past the loading screen of windows. It won't let me boot in safe mode either. Is this an hd issue or what? Thanks.
(XP here)

Have you tried to boot in Last Known Good Configuration? Or use a restore point? When you try to boot in safe mode, what file does it hang on? I dont believe it will be a HDD issue, possibly a corrupt OS at worse.

[Carlos Rojas]

Have you tried to boot in Last Known Good Configuration? Or use a restore point? When you try to boot in safe mode, what file does it hang on? I dont believe it will be a HDD issue, possibly a corrupt OS at worse.

Tried last known good configuration and that's a no go. How can I use a restore point without going into safemode?
It hangs on windows/system32/acpitabl.dat

[Mariaa EM.]

Asus P8P67 Pro
Gigabyte P67A-UD4
MSI P67A GD65

Will the ASUS micro ATX board be too small for http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118074?

[Felix Walde]

So, things have gone bad over here. After a series of crashes, when I start my PC it seems it can't find my hard drive (After the motherboard logo what appears is this message: "Reboot and select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Drive and press a key"). I just sent an e-mail to the firm I bought the components from (they built it as well and sent the finished thing to me) about sending the hard drive in, but I'd like to get a second opinion from here (I've been in contact with them before, and while they're very helpful, they're not very fast) about a few things:

- First, I bought components and not a pre-built rig from the major retailer because everyone said it was cheaper and not very complex. However, I'm not very tech-savvy, so I'm not sure it's the hard drive that's been failing. My crashes seemed to appear at random, but more often when I played games. Once the bluescreen appeared it wouldn't boot up successfully for an hour or so (bluescreen after loading Windows or the message "Reboot and select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Drive and press a key"). I couldn't really find any specific info on the error codes. I ran a memory test and Malwarebytes (Anti-virus search would always cause crash before finishing) and those found no errors or virus.

- Should I check the connections between hard drive and the motherboard? Or could that even cause errors like this?

- If I need to send the hard drive back, how do I wipe it before I send it if the motherboard doesn't even find the HD (actually, how do I wipe it even if it did find it)? I've read enough on this forum to not send my private data away to someone I don't know.

It could be;

a loose cable
BIOS conflict with "first boot priority"
a floppy in a floppy drive,
a MBR issue. (Master Boot Record)

First, check the cables. (Easy and quick to figure out.)
Then hit whatever key your mobo says to to enter "set up" or "BIOS" when it first boots. Go to the "Boot" section. Look for "Boot priority" (Or similar.) and make sure the right HDD/SSD is select to boot first. (The OS one obviously.)
Eject the floppy.
W7 disk has a built in start up repair if you have W7. XP needs the http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/fix-mbr-xp-vista/ option.

To delete files securely use http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml. (Free and works for SSDs to. See read me for instructions.)

Quick Q: is there anything I have to be particularly mindful of when setting up an SSD for the first time and installing Windows 7 on it as primary OS?

Not with W7. It's SSD aware and does a good job on it's own, though not "perfect" if you believe all the SSD tweaking guides. I no longer bother with them. I use Intel's SSD Toolbox which optimizes Intel drives as they see fit. (Turns off Superfetch/Prefetch, C drive defrag, C being the SSD of course. Ready Boost, part of Superfetch, and DIPM, whatever the hell that is.) I don't care about page/swap file. I do move my TEMP, and TMP files to my HDD though. As everything uses those!! (Right-click on Computer>Properties>Advanced tab>Environment variables. Highlight the "TEMP" variable, click Edit, and enter the new location in the Variable Value field. Do the same for "TMP", even the excat same as TEMP if like. I did.)

Tried last known good configuration and that's a no go. How can I use a restore point without going into safemode?
It hangs on windows/system32/acpitabl.dat

That appears to be part of the PCI SATA/IDE controller. All I can think to try if you are truly locked out of XP no matter what, is you could try a repair reinstall. Have the drivers on a disk/memory stick so when it asks you to hit F6, you are ready. (Not needed if SP1 or above is integrated into the disk, I believe.)

[Laura Hicks]

Will the ASUS micro ATX board be too small for http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118074?

No, but uh... why would you be buying a mATX board?

[Marine Arrègle]

Is there a freeware that can check entire folders of files, and generate a txt file and saves it in the folder? CRC or MD5 are all fine.