bonestonne

+1 on PuntoMX. and jaclaz. I've fixed many a monitor with blown capacitor. Only way to make sure it's the capacitors and not the lights themselves is to totally rip it apart and visually check. I would say 9/10 times it's either the backlights or capacitors that are bad. That unlucky 10th time it's usually a part of the circuit that is faulty or just died, like the 22" Dell I have. No bad caps, but I needed a resistor mod to keep a circuit below 2.8W in order to keep the unit running.

http://www.kwikpiks.com/files/172/IMG_20110222_190356.jpg NZXT Phantom Asus M4A79XTD EVO 4GB DDR3 Western Digital 150gb Velociraptor Antec 650W AMD Phenom II 1090T MSI 5770 Hawk LG Blu-Ray burner They are quite fast, and the NZXT Phantom is a very good looking case. Without a doubt at all. http://www.kwikpiks.com/files/172/IMG_20110222_191143.jpg

FWIW, I did set up an old HP LaserWriter 5 printer (parallel only) with a brand new Mac Pro using a USB to Parellel adapter. Granted, yes, it's just sending the print job, but it did work. The first adapter died actually, not sure why, but swapping the adapter for a new one brought the setup back to life, and so far it's working. Not guaranteed to work for you though, you're looking to do more than the adapters are really meant to do. It may work with reduced functionality though, but it's hard to say.

I use them every day at work. If there was a problem with them, it's usually a cheap quality brand. Kensington makes pretty nice ones actually. We also have some sub-par Diablo-Tek ones. Rocketfish also makes them, but they're inbetween Kensington and Diablo-Tek. I don't have any complaints about them, just make sure you get the voltage right on them (some automatically change, some have a 14-17 and 17-21 switch, and color coordinated plugs for that, but they all work.

Try a BIOS update, but no guarantees that it's going to make much of a difference. For some it does, for some it doesn't.

After a tweak to the boot.ini, I got an error about hal.dll, but even after replacing it from the install CD, I saw no change, and after a reboot, got the same error about hal.dll. Giving it time, but not feeling very confident at this point, because there don't seem to be many pages that document similar problems with fixes.

No Step by Step configuration option. I'm about to configure a new install and see if I can migrate most of the data over, but I'm torn. Not sure if it's a huge hardware issue, or if it's a boot sector virus that removed blocks of the boot sector when removed. I can't seem to find a log of it to confirm. Computer is seriously going to kill me. I have a pretty brutal cold, midterms starting tomorrow, and this **** computer on the side. I'll have to kick this comp back, but it's not looking hopeful.

If I can't save the install, can anyone tell me if I'll be able to migrate most of the data to a new install? I've never used the Windows Data Migration software in Windows XP, so I don't want to necessarily go that route and get screwed over. I'm not going into work today to mess with it, but I will tomorrow, so any help would be great right now.

After doing a Repair install, there was no change in behavior from the system. I did a repair install at least twice, with absolutely no change whatsoever. I've run out of ideas, which is why I came here for some second/third/fourth opinions.

PSU didnt do it. Another RAM swap didn't do it. I was able to do a fresh install, but I haven't put on any drivers, simply because I have other computers on the bench. I can't get in with Safe Mode, can't get in with a normal boot. I'm literally stuck. I'm leaning towards a fresh install and migrating the data. It's all there, but I'm guessing it had some nasty virus (Malware Bytes had over 100 infections, and I was in a rush, so I didn't look too closely at the time, but I can pull the log out later and look again). Reason #2345 for not storing everything solely on your main computer?

From what I've read, the issue isn't actually MUP.sys, that's why I didn't want to title the thread with that. The issue supposedly lies within whatever loads next. I don't want to shoot anything down, I want to try and narrow the possibilities, so here's my next step of thoughts: 1) Can't be the hard drive, two drives give the same result. I doubt two different drives would be corrupt at the same time because of this 2) No new hardware other than swapping out the hard drive, but the original drive gives the same issue. 3) It could be a corrupt registry hive, how could I fix this (or is this not fixable)? 4) No drivers have changed, although it's possible they're corrupt. Again, I've run CheckDisk a million times, is there a chance that missed it? 5) I'll grab a new power supply right now and try that out, and get back later with a result. 6) I'm tempted to say it's a motherboard issue, but I don't have any similar computers that will boot the drive. I've had Dells with close enough hardware be able to boot other drives in the past, but this one gives the same issue. I still have trouble saying it's the OS though (but I could be wrong on that). Off to try a new PSU, will be back soon, hopefully after some others chime in on possibilities.

Okay, I'm sure this thread has been brought up before, but I'm going to go nuts over this thing soon. Situation in a nutshell: Dell Dimension 2350, full of viruses over a long period of time, finally the user decided to do something about it. Between Microsoft Security Essentials and Malware Bytes, I've gotten the computer virus free. Step two is getting it all back together. Put the box together, press the power button, goes through POST, then it hangs. I do not see the Windows XP loading screen, just a white bar at the bottom of the screen. If I try to boot into Safe Mode, it hangs after loading MUP.sys I've reset the BIOS, I've swapped out the PATA cable, I've swapped the RAM, I've cloned the drive, I've ran Check Disk, I've ran FixBoot, I've ran BootCfg, I've tried a repair install, and at this point, I've just left the computer on at that white bar to see if it can sort it out by itself. The data is all intact, I can go through the data on another computer, but beyond that, I just can't get the thing to boot into Windows. Short of reinstalling everything, is there anything I can do? Simply put, the computer is owned by a pretty old fellow, and in all honesty, I'm not sure I'll be able to set it up how he had it again, because of the Dial Up connection, among other software that I'm not sure he has anywhere else. Even an ugly fix would work for me, but this is going to kill me. The computer has definitely seen better days, but the longer the problem persists, the more I feel like it's a bigger hardware issue than software. Any and all help is much appreciated! -bonestonne

Ha, but why buy an extra RAID controller? They're pretty expensive for one that's actually good. Only other thing I can think of is that some slots are GPU only (but that's mostly a problem with ITX and mATX boards. (Devil's Advocate).

Antec TruePower 550 would be a better PSU for that build. Better efficiency, quieter fan, and it'll be easier to work with. 650 is overkill. Also, remember that the TruePower series do not peak at their rated output, that is there highest rated continuous. The 550W Antec True Power peaks closer to 600-620W if you really think you'll be approaching those power needs. Also, for the price, why not go for a quad core? I'm sure it's well more power than you'll realistically need, but the availability would mean you don't have to buy another CPU in the future. I have no complaints about any other components, although for the 5770, I would suggest the MSI Hawk version, it's quieter and cools better than most other stock cards.

I have fixed very few printers that have this problem, it's not a simple, reliable or permanent fix either. What's essentially happened is two things. First, the waste ink tanks are filled, and yes they can be cleaned, but only to a point. There may also be a small shred of paper inside the back of the printer around the motor area. Secondly, inside the print head, it may be full of waste ink as well, which at this point would be dried up, and more or less impossible to clean. Replacing the print head may not fix the problem, and it's also a very expensive thing to try if it's not definitely the problem. The waste ink tanks are the small "buckets" underneath the ink cartridges when they are in the parked position. I have never seen anyone replace waste tanks, so I'm not sure how that would go down to be honest, but I can tell you that the entire printer would need to be taken apart for this, so it's down to whatever you feel is worth it. When print heads go, or you start seeing these errors popping up, it's actually cheaper to buy a new printer than pour money into an older one to keep it going. Just my $0.02.

If you're going for high quality stereo speakers, I would actually go for Edirol on a budget rather than anyone else. http://www.amazon.com/Edirol-MA-7A-Stereo-Micro-Monitors/dp/B0009PV492/ref=pd_cp_MI_3 I've used those before, and they are some of the highest quality speakers I've ever used for less than $100.

I second Punto, but i'm way more inclined to say it's a bad motherboard. I can't tell you how many laptops i've seen at work with bad motherboards in the past two weeks.

Take the computer apart and do a test bench setup by putting the motherboard on a piece of cardboard and having the power supply connected to only what is absolutely needed, ATX, P4 connector, and graphics if needed. Use a screwdriver to short out the power on jumper. If the computer works like this, the case is at fault by causing a short circuit or not having proper grounding. I've seen computers that work perfectly fine with a test bench but will absolutely refuse to work inside a case. This is generally caused by hairline fractures on the board, generally caused by mishandling or even shipping. You'd be surprised how poorly some boxes are treated during the handling process, or even manufacturing packaging process.

I had the exact same problem with a Dell Dimension I had for a while. Turned out there was a short on one of the USB ports which caused the 5v line to constantly ground out, which required a similar fix that has been mentioned. make sure the board is clean and nothing could be shorting anything else out.

It could, but it wouldn't be a major difference. If you don't have trouble with 2gb now, you aren't going to see much of an improvement with 3gb. I'm also not really sure about what you're doing that would need that extra 1gb, as 2gb of RAM seems like plenty for your usage and that system.

Might I suggest a laptop cooler? My Powerbook G4's base is pretty much it's heatsink for everything, and gets very hot. Simple $25 laptop cooler solved that problem easily.

insanely powerful for 1998 was the Supermicro S2DGU with dual P3 Xeon 700Mhz (sorry, I have one upstairs that i now use as a chair). Likely it doesn't have enough RAM. Windows 7 uses A LOT of RAM. In fact, on my current desktop (specs in sig) at idle it's using 1.4gb of RAM, which is nearly 3x the RAM you have in the system alone. I also think Win 7 required at least 1ghz CPU speed? I would check the minimum requirements for 7, but you're not likely to get it working without the help of slimming it down via vLite or similar. I don't see why Ubuntu 9.10 is so bad though, I still run that on a spare drive in my workstation.

+1

I'm in the firm belief that this is beyond overthought. I think that's actually an understatement. Unless the PCI card has IRQ conflicts, it's just a bus used to transfer data back and forth between drives or whatever.

The card will work, the only difference is that your motherboard seems to have PCI-e x16 first gen, and the HD5830 is most likely PCI-e x16 2.0 technicalities aside, it should work just fine.