posted
Well keep the old cd-rom drive, and get a new burner (cd-rw drive), but never copy discs directly from the cd-rom drive to the cd-rw drive as chances are likely that you'll experience buffer underruns which will screw up your newly recorded cd.
Damn run-on sentences.
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Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Flower Man: Dude. You're getting a Dell! hehehe
Shouldn't that be -- "Dude. You're getting a Dull!" ?
I'd advise you to Think Different.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
I bought a new Dell 8200 1.6GHz with WinXP, it's the best thing I've done. It's so sealed and insulated that I thought I hadn't put in the power cord when switching it on for the first time.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Hmmm, should I buy a computer from Japan that we would never see in the US markets? I'm looking to replace my Gateway desktop with a Sony desktop that's only sold in Japan.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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Well, in theory spare parts for this Jap computer should be the same as anything else's, but actual warranty-based support may be impossible to get. What do you do if there's a fundamental fault in the machine?
posted
I keep forgetting about my thread here - cause I forget to come over to the officer's lounge - spending all my time in the friggin' DS9 kitbash thread
Anyway thanks for your ideas/comments/suggestions people! And please, keep them coming. I'll have to spend some time reading through them. For all the time I spend on this machine I don't know a WHOLE heap about it. I think it stems from out first computers... 'family' ones from like 1990 - when my dad would say "Don't go fooling around with stuff" - so I was wary that I'd wreck stuff ;o)
ANYWAY, I'm not up on ALL the jargon - but I've got an idea - so I'll sift through some of the info you've all given me (and I hope it keeps coming). Y'see I've still gotta convince my father to buy the computer - as I have no job (even if I had my own money I'd still have to watch what I bought!) ) So I have to work out a good computer - but it can't be like - way too exxy.
A friend/aquaintence on a mailing list I'm on - who lives in Brisbane said he'd offer to put the machine together... but I didn't want to burden him with the task.
As for putting it together myself - I've never OPENED the case before - let alone put anything together - It'd be great to have a whole lot of old 'puters and fuck around with them to see what goes where/what happens - is it very hard?
As for what I already have from my old computer - not much:
The original monitor - last week blew up on me. It left an acrid smell and the screen when bonkers. So that's out - I went and fished my brother's old 'puter from upstairs which hasn't been used since like 1995. It was bought in 1993. The monitor was SOOO pathetic - 12" viewable! Couldn't 'stretch' the screen - it curved out so much it nearly hit me in the nose I've gone and 'swapped' the monitor on to the older machine that is sitting on my dad's desk (The one before the one I'm using) It sorta sits there - but dad does use it every now and then to... play golf
So 1 the monitor is out. (although this 2nd oldest monitor is 14" I think it's better than the one I was using ;o)
Keyboard - yeah don't cost much - but this one was fished from my brother's old 'puter as well ;o) (The other one's space bar went caput!)
Mouse - 4th mouse I think - and now it too is buggering up - again not that exxy.
Speakers - they aren't too bad - but they are getting old.
CD rom - The company dad bought the original 'puter off - replaced the old one with a 10x - not too bad - but bloody noisy. Oh and about CD burning - so it is true it's not best to copy from CDROM-->CDWriter but copy the tracks to the hard drive and then burn?
Hard drive - 2 gig. I am continually deleting stuff.
RAM - !?! Can't remember - where do I look - Control panel - 2 seconds...
32 Megs of RAM!! OMG! LOL! (I think that was good for 1996)
CPU: Pentium 133.
The 3.5" dd would be dusty - as It hasn't been used in yonks ;o)
Modem - External. I'm pretty sure it's still a 28.8 - the box said "upgraded to 36.6" but I reckon that could have been crap.
Scanner: CanoScan FB320P (does me fine)
Printer: Epson Stylus 'Color' 640. Both do me fine.
Everything else I reckon needs a replacement.
So please, everyone keep suggesting!
Anyone else hungry?
Andrew
[ March 19, 2002, 21:32: Message edited by: AndrewR ]
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Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by AndrewR: [b] Oh and about CD burning - so it is true it's not best to copy from CDROM-->CDWriter but copy the tracks to the hard drive and then burn?
Well I've done some CD burning, not many but a few to know a bit about it. I put my origninal CD in my CD-Rom drive and put the source CD in the CDRW (obvious some would say, but I don't want anyone getting confused). Now all of my CDs that I've burned are music CDs for my sister and the quality of the copies is no different than that of the original. As for transferring to the HDD and then copying - I have no idea but if someone can confirm that I'd be very interested.
AndrewR - you sound as though you've had more bad luck with your PC(s) than I have with mine!
-------------------- If you cant convince them, confuse them.
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Well you can copy directly from cd-rom drive to cd-rw drive, but there are some times when the cd-rom drive isn't fast enough to place enough data into the buffer so the -rw drive has a steady stream of data to use. Using the hard drive is often better because they are much faster than -rom drives and can supply a steady stream to the buffer. The way a -rw works when burning a disc is that the lens is constantly moving as it writes to the disc. It doesn't stop until the disc write procedure is completed. If there is no data to write when there should be, the lens will still move forward. When the data finally arrives, the lens is already past the point where the data is supposed to be written, though the data will still be written, albeit in a different place on the disc that it supposed to be on. This automatically screws up the disc when the disc is played later on. When a player is reading the disc, it will come to the point where it expects data to be there, only to find nothing there. It will not fast forward to the new spot, but just stop, thinking it's reached the end instead.
BTW akb1979, the source disc goes into the cd-rom drive as that's were the data comes from (the source of the data). The blank cd-r or cd-rw disc is the target disc (where the data is going to) and goes into the cd-rw drive.
And never do anything else when you're burning a disc, because the access heads of the hard drive will be in other places getting other stuff from the hard drive or writing other stuff to the hard drive. When it's time for the hard drive to get more data for the buffer, it's too busy doing other stuff and you'll get a buffer underrun. It'll take time for the access heads to return to the correct place to get the data. By that time, the cd-rw lens is past the correct writing point and you'll have a screwed up disc.
[ March 20, 2002, 17:37: Message edited by: Dat ]
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posted
Vogon, I'm buying this computer from Dynamism.com, a third party dealer that offers tech support like a Best Buy store.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
) So I have to work out a good computer - but it can't be like - way too exxy.
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