DarkCloud

For those wondering, my system came with an nVidia GeForce 8400GS 256 MB card. Since my original crashed, I upgraded to 512 MB. I tried doing the whole complete memory dump, but nothing seemed to happen. I looked in my system root folder and found a memory dump from two days ago, so I hope that works. I've attached the file, here. I've also attached the mini dump, here.

I can post a minidump later tonight, but not sure how to get a full memory dump.

I already stated in my OP I had upgraded to the latest drivers. Trust me, I always upgrade everything first after doing a full system format. So, that didn't help fix my problem. Isn't it a little odd I'm getting a BSoD when the system is idle, especially coming back from a reformat with all the latest updates?

Hi, I've had my current PC for about three years. Around this same time late last year, I had to replace my graphics card as it died out on me quite suddenly. Since I replaced the graphics card, things were working fine up until just recently, when I've been having a random BSoD pop up. Once my system reboots, I get the "Windows has recovered from a serious error" with some crash info: Problem signature: Problem Event Name: BlueScreen OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1 Locale ID: 1033 Additional information about the problem: BCCode: 116 BCP1: 849863A0 BCP2: 8E41FF80 BCP3: C000009A BCP4: 00000004 OS Version: 6_1_7600 Service Pack: 0_0 Product: 256_1 Files that help describe the problem: C:\Windows\Minidump\071510-31044-01.dmp C:\Users\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-43836-0.sysdata.xml Read our privacy statement online: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409 If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline: C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt To be certain I didn't have any sort of virus or anything, I ran CHKDSK and found no errors. I also reformatted my drive and wiped it clean. Upon completion I still get a random blue screen. I ran the Windows Experience Index, and my score is usually a 3.5, but has now dropped down to 2.0, with the graphics card having the lowest score. I've installed the latest drivers for my graphics card, and when attempting to watch any online videos, play a game, open or close a window, etc., everything is just sluggish. All of the transitions that take place within the windows environment just seem to struggle. I doubt there's a fix for this, but if there is can someone redirect me? I'm almost certain I'll have to replace my graphics card again. I know nothing about dump files, but I can post it for someone to look at if needed. Thanks for any help.

I'm using Windows Vista, sorry about that and thx for the info.

OK, my current PC is only 2 months old and I've had no problems with it so far. However, I seem to have noticed recently that my hard drive makes this random noise, and its very frustrating. I wouldn't call it a noise, but the hard drive will have the yellow light flashing as if doing some sort of work in the background, but I have no applications running. This seems to have happened ever since I installed Zone Alarm / AVG. Both are free versions and even after disabling and turning off both, I still have the problem. It's a random thing and it only lasts for a few short seconds, but when it happens the sound is just annoying. Anyone know what it could be or how to possibly fix it?

Well that's good to hear. Looks like I'll just install my previous sound card. BTW, why are most store bought/online PCs coming with everything integrated/onboard? Kinda sucks...even my old age PC and PCs of the past, didn't seem to have that many onboard components.

LOL thanks. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either. It's a great system, very fast and easy to use. I haven't had an upgrade in years (full upgrade) so this will be a nice change. BTW, is it onboard sound thats bad and not integrated?

OK, my aunt just bought me a new PC out of nowhere. I guess you could say it was "spur of the moment" type thing. I haven't opened the package yet as I'm kind of debating whether or not this system is any good. The PC was bought at Costco, it's almost identical to the one my aunt has, and to be honest I really don't like some of the things about it. Here's the link to my new PC. Here's the link to my aunts PC. The keyboard is the smallest keyboard I've ever used, I really don't like it's layout. The keys all seem to be jam packed together, it just feels like a cheaply made keyboard. My only concern is the integrated sound card that came with mine. I can't remember if integrated is good or bad. I bought a new sound blaster card for my older PC not too long ago that supports 2.1 channels. I really like that card, it sounds great and has many audio enhancements that work in real time, and I would hate if I wouldn't be able to swap that for use in my new PC due to the integrated option. Can somone confirm if integrated is good or not? What about the graphics card? Will that be good for gaming? A fast response would be greatly appreciated, if I don't like the new system I'd rather return it for something better. Thanks in advance.

I seem to be having a slight problem. The font in the title bars dont match what everyone else has in their screen shots. Take a look at my image below, hopefully someone can tell me whats wrong? Even though I have all options installed in the VistaPack menu, some options say they're NOT installed when they are. One last thing, how do you get the start/taskbar to look like Vista instead of the plain one?

I know it's possible to get the tray icons in a higher resolution than 16-bit color, but the last time I tried my explorer.exe would only open up "My Documents" after starting Windows. I tried the automatic install file from Dr. Hoiby's site, or whatever his name is called and I had problems after restarting. I just finished formatting my system as it needed a clean start. I'm running W2K SP4 and would like to upgrade all my icons including system tray, folder icons, system icons, etc to match those of XP and/or vista in a higher resolution. I've seen some zip files around that could probably do this, but I would like the most current version available of any application, and not have to use several different third party downloads to enable such an effect, if possible. Can anyone provide me with some links to upgrade all my shell icons listed above, and more if possible? Thanks so much.

My roommate has an HP Media Center desktop. It was bought a year ago so its fairly new. However, lately he's been having problems with his internal fan. There will be times at random when the fan just goes off very loudly, almost like when you use a vacuum. It will often stay that way for several minutes. He believes the fan noise started the minute he let another friend of his use his PC, thinking it may have to do with a virus of some sort. We've ran several virus and spyware checks, and all things seem normal. What could cause something like this, and is it cause for concern? HP Media Center

My roommate is having problems displaying web images on any website when running Internet explorer. I recently heard that many others are experiencing this problem, although I haven't had the problem myself. There's supposed to be a patch out there and I can't find the link. Can anyone help me out? My roomie is running a laptop with W2K and Internet Explorer 6 SP1.

OK, I'm working on a laptop and I'm having problems with the CD drive. The drive works fine except for one thing, it won't boot from my XP CD that I burned. I restart the laptop with the bootable CD and it reads it, but just as it's getting ready to say "Press any key to boot from CD" etc., it just hangs and won't do anything. I tried using a real copy of an XP Home that I bought years ago and that one boots fine. I tried the burned CD on my PC and it boots no problem. I was thinking of maybe using Norton Ghost to make a copy of my PCs OS to then put on CD for the laptop, but wasn't sure if that would work. So far the only thing I've tried is creating a new installation from within Windows on the laptp, but after it reboots and starts the real installation, all I get are errors. I'm just trying to install a fresh copy of XP on the laptop but I'm getting nowhere. Any ideas that don't require me to purchase software/hardware??

OK, I'm now stuck between two cameras, a Canon Powershot S80 or the new Sony Cybershot DSCN1. Both are 8MP and cost around $400-500. I've read reviews at Amazon along with some other sites, and more people seem to prefer the Sony, but I know Canon is the best out there. However, one thing the Canon model doesn't have is RAW format, which I don't know what that means in a camera. Canon seems to have more features than the Sony, but both seem to be great cameras. My budget is $500, so what would you guys suggest between the two??

OK everyone, I need as many responses to this topic as I can get, so try your hardest to help me out. I made a topic a while back about digital cameras, and what the best one was in your honest opinion, for those that have one. I’m going to be buying one within the next 2 weeks, and I did a little research from the last topic I made about brands and their performance. Canon, Nikon and Sony seem to be the best on the market I think, but I could be wrong since people say Sony is a little more “special” when it comes to their product. Anyway, I’m looking for a really nice digital camera between 6-8 megapixels. I would like the camera to have a nice recording feature that captures high quality video with stereo sound, but if it doesn’t have stereo that’s fine, most cameras don’t. It would have to have at least a 2.5 viewing area and be one of the brands I listed above, but any other brand that can do what I listed would be great. There was a nice new Sony camera that is a camcorder and digital camera in one, it’s on their website but I forgot the name of it. Something like that would be nice, but right now I’m open to anything as I really want some opinions as I’m still doing research. I may be asking for a lot, but I know what I want in a camera. So, any help is appreciated…thanks.

I burned a CD the other day using Nero 7, and all I got were nothing but major skips and errors when I played back the CD in my player. I burned it at the lowest speed (4x) and don't understand why this happened. The discs I have are all brand new and are Sony's CD-R music brand. This isn't the first time this has happened, but it does happen occasionally. My burner is a Sony DVD-RW and its probably about a year old. Anyone else have this issue before?

Why me? I installed Windows 2000 and I can't connect to the Internet. Everything else is set up fine, no problems in the device manager or anything. I installed my Internet connection software since Win2K doesn't have PPPoE, and I wasn't able to connect. My ethernet controller is installed but I wasn't able to select it from the drop down list of available connection devices. I have a Speedstream 5100 and all lights are green, indicating there is no connection problem. I do not however get any sort of "connection status" indicating I've been connected nor is there a way for me to configure the modem. Any way to fix this? By the way, I'm on XP right now and just want to use an OS that isn't so slow on my PC, as I only have a P4 1.3 with 128MB RAM. Yes I could buy more but I'm poor at the moment, LOL.

OK boys and girls, even though I recently just installed Win98 I was wondering if it would be worth upgrading to Windows 2000? I know it's based on the same technology as XP, but are the system requirements the same and is it stable?

Could you possibly recommend a program that could accomplish this? I have Nero but I don't see anything about saving as an MPEG.

I was thinking more of a slideshow that you produce with a program such as Nero, save it as an MPEG video or any format and upload it for others to view. Is this possible?

Is there a program that enables you to create a video slideshow and share it online, instead of burning it to a CD/DVD? I was thinking of doing this and wanted to know the best way to go about it.

Is there a guide on here or anywhere that shows you how to make a Win98 unattended CD? I thought I saw it here but now I can't find it. Forgive me as I'm tired and my brain isn't functioning properly....

On the desktop, how do you change the background font color so it's transparent, and not always one color? For example, the "My Computer" icon, how do you change it so where it says "My Computer" there's no background color behind it, like on XP? I remember reading somewhere that it was possible, but I don't remember where I found it....

OK, I'm having a small problem with a digital camera. This just started happening out of the blue so I'm hoping to get at least some info. Anyway, the camera takes pictures just fine and I've never had a problem connecting the camera to my PC to upload the pictures. However, a few days ago my PC decided to stop recognising my camera and now I can't upload any photos. The camera is brand new, I've tried looking at the manufacturer's site and instruction manual and found nothing helpful, I looked on Microsoft's site and found no help there as well. I'm guessing its a USB cord issue, but that makes no sense because it's never been tampered with, everything is brand new so I have no clue as to what's going on. I've checked all the necessary USB ports, there are no exclamation points in the device manager, everything just stoppped working. I checked my camera settings and there is nothing in there that could have caused it to stop recognising. If you must know the camera make and model, its a Vivitar Vivicam 5385. I could go and buy a memory card reader and upload pics that way, which is what the manufacturer suggests, but why spend more money on something like that?