Need some comupter technical advice

[LV-8]

I've got a few questions and I hope you guys could help me. I recently buit my comp together but I've been having a few problems.

1) I installed Windows Servixe XP Service Pack 2 on my HD which is running
Windows XP Professional. Evere since I did that I constaly get those
annoying error messages when I use Explorer or any other browser. I
know service pack 1 had problems but do you think I'm getting these
messages because of service pack 2??

2) The new HD that I bought is a Western Digital 160 GB HD but when I
installed it the comp only reads that it has only 129GB?? How do I fix
that??

3) This actually might be tied in with the service pack question. There are
times now when I'll downloading files or music the computer just reboots
itself and only when I'm D/Ling or transferring files. I ran a virus and
spyware check and I' totally clean. Could it be my power supply??

and one last question, sorry for so many questions but I'm tried to hook up another HD as a back up. When I did all went well but when I tried to trash the files the comp rebooted itself and told me the F: trash is corrupt wtf does that mean???

I'd really appreciate help guys big thanx!!

[Jenks]

CTRL - ALT - DEL

[Civic_Zen]

OK. First, I have no experience with SP2, but I've heard nothing but bad things about it. Honestly, there is absolutely no reason to use it. IE is more secure with SP2, but you should be using Firefox any way. I think its a safe bet to assume that SP2 could be causing those problems, although I haven't heard about those particular issues before.

Second. Your Hard Drive is showing accurately. Once upon a time in the industry, you would buy an 8 GB drive, and actually get like 9 gig. Nowadays, its the exact opposite. You always get a smaller drive then you paid for, and then after formatting and everything else, 129 GB from a 160 GB drive still seems a bit low though, it should be around 140 GB or so, physical. Go to My computer, Right click on C: (assuming its your only HD) and hit properties, there are 2 seperate numbers there for Capacity. The First number should read around 140 GB even if the second number is around 129. I am assuming that there is absolutely nothing wrong here, this is just the way of it.

Third, Go to System Properties - Advanced - Startup & Recovery Settings and Uncheck "Automatically Restart". See if that brings up a Blue Screen error message instead of a reboot next time. Default settings for XP just reboots on an error instead of giving you the Blue Screen. If you get a Blue Screen instead, write down the ERROR message, at the top like BLAH_BLAH_BLAH and also the stop check code at the bottom Stop 0x9304723445723482348 0x123490237482374 or something to that extent. This way you can diagnose the issue online and see whats up, might be a hardware issue.

[LV-8]

Re: Need some comupter technical advice

Civic

What you just told me about the HD space is heart breaking, but it's better than the 40GB I had before. Much thanx Civic!!

[Civic_Zen]

No probz. Make sure you do number 3. If it was indeed rebooting because of a Blue Screen, its important that you see the error instead of it just restarting.

Also, if and when it happens again, Windows should come up with a WINDOWS ERROR, DO YOU WANT TO SEND ERROR REPORT?? Click on Yes, and it should diagnose the error for you, and give you the Stop Error code that you need to diagnose the problem. These errors are also logged somwhere, I just forget where. I personally just go the Advanced - Startup & Recovery Settings I explained above, and look at the Error Code myself when it blue screens and just write that down.

This is really important, because if you just built this computer, a lot of times you can get hardware that was damaged. Most likely by UPS or FedEx, those bastards. But if your RAM, or Motherboard or something is bad, its better to know within the 30 days so you can deal with newegg.com or whoever you bought it from, which is much quicker then dealing with the manufacturer. Chances are, since the Win XP install is new, that you might have a Hardware problem.

[Chatterbot]

Re: Need some comupter technical advice

Second. Your Hard Drive is showing accurately. Once upon a time in the industry, you would buy an 8 GB drive, and actually get like 9 gig. Nowadays, its the exact opposite. You always get a smaller drive then you paid for, and then after formatting and everything else, 129 GB from a 160 GB drive still seems a bit low though, it should be around 140 GB or so, physical. Go to My computer, Right click on C: (assuming its your only HD) and hit properties, there are 2 seperate numbers there for Capacity. The First number should read around 140 GB even if the second number is around 129. I am assuming that there is absolutely nothing wrong here, this is just the way of it.

That?s not exactly how it is.

I?ve got this problem 2 weeks ago.
a 160 GB harddisk has got approximately 150 GB to use.

Windows has got a problem knowing harddisks bigger than 128GB.
This problem was fixed by microsoft since SP1.
I?m assuming you?ve got the XP original installation-CD, where the
problem still exists.

First you have to take a look into your BIOS if the harddisk is shown
correctly. Otherwise -> update BIOS first.

Then download the actual "WindowsXP Setup-disks" from the
microsoft-homepage.

This will take 6 3,5``-diskettes.
Re-install Windows XP using this setup-diskettes:
-re-partition the HD
- then run the Windows-setup from CD

(I used the SP1-setup-disks, it works, but when asked for the
installation-CD, setup will stop because it?s not the original SP1-CD.
It?s no problem though, partitions are made, you can boot again
from CD...)

There might be an easier way, but this was the only way I could get
that *~!! harddisk running...

[xeb]

Re: Need some comupter technical advice

yeah i had a similar problem... just bought a 160gig drive and my pc with win 2k wouldn't format it anything about 131gig.

bought it to work, put it into my XP machine here, hey presto it formatted up to 160gig. worked fine in other PC when i took it back home too.

like chatterbot says, check your bios first

not too sure after that... try chatterbots method or try formatting it in another PC if you have access to one

[LV-8]

Re: Need some comupter technical advice

Much thanx fellas once again!!! I'll def. try everything you guys say. It's been a real bitch. I'm hoping my new MB isn't the issue here. I'll def. try all I can do with getting that HD space back. Once again mucj thanx guys!!!

[demonAfro]

Re: Need some comupter technical advice

Western Digital have a drive installation program which fixes some of the drive space issues HERE

[Leha]

http://www.48bitlba.com/

that should help to solve the problem with hard disc, i also had it, i have 160 gig, at first i got 130 gigs, and now it's 150

[drthundr]

Re: Need some comupter technical advice

update bios, update firmware for HD, as suggested by a few people. run a defrag too. it may help. as for the SP2 probs, what errors are you seeing? You can go into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer and check to see what the errors are. Check the Application & System logs. Look for any yellow warning icons or red X icons. You can open them and click on the link. Microsoft posts causes and resolutions for these issues.

[evangelion]

Re: Need some comupter technical advice

2) The new HD that I bought is a Western Digital 160 GB HD but when I
installed it the comp only reads that it has only 129GB?? How do I fix
that??

The reason is that back in the late eighties\early ninties when hard drives were maybe 1 gig the drive manufactuers measured it as 1000MB. A Gigabyte is actually 1,073,741,824 bytes or 1024MB. This wasn't a big deal when drives were that small, but as they got bigger the ~24MB that was getting shaved off started adding up. Why they don't just tell you the true size instead of making you think you new drive is fucked I will never understand.

As for your SP2 troubles...uninstall it. I tried it and it messed up some many things I almost had to reformat. I got away with doing a repair but it was a close one.

Oh, and what Civic said about your restarting problem is exactly correct. Turn that shit off.

[djway]

2) The new HD that I bought is a Western Digital 160 GB HD but when I
installed it the comp only reads that it has only 129GB?? How do I fix
that??

The reason is that back in the late eighties\early ninties when hard drives were maybe 1 gig the drive manufactuers measured it as 1000MB. A Gigabyte is actually 1,073,741,824 bytes or 1024MB. This wasn't a big deal when drives were that small, but as they got bigger the ~24MB that was getting shaved off started adding up. Why they don't just tell you the true size instead of making you think you new drive is fucked I will never understand.

Oh, and what Civic said about your restarting problem is exactly correct. Turn that shit off.

Yeah. it's the whole conversion of bits/bytes/1000/1024 deal.

--djway

[viceroy]

and this is why I love my mac!

[Leha]

your hard disc if it's 160 should be 150, not 130, it's the problem of 48bit, the site i've written before is about this shit, just read it and you will solve

160/1024^3*1000^3=149,0116119 that is the size you should get from you drive