I was digging through some old boxes yesterday and stumbled upon a bunch of forgotten parts left over from my last upgrade. I know this stuff is ancient—I'm definitely not expecting much here—but is it even worth trying to sell this lot?
amberbadger15 said:First off, the audio quality is pretty rough—and second, I'm looking to swap out some of my newer Windows setups. That's basically the gist of it.
If you could just let me know the exact model of the laptop or PC you're using, we can take this one step at a time...
Yeah, so the pricier motherboard ($148) actually comes with both VGA and DVI ports, whereas the cheaper one is limited to just VGA. Honestly, my advice? Grab the more expensive one—it’s only about two bucks more—and connect your monitor using the DVI port (assuming it has one). If it doesn't, you can always just pick up a VGA-to-DVI adapter for maybe 20$10 cents. As for the processor, it's a solid choice since it has integrated graphics built right in, so you're all set there. Just let me know which monitor model you're using, just so we can be absolutely sure...
The VGA connector—that's what links your graphics card to your monitor to get an image on the screen—isn't the only option anymore. You've also got DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort... honestly, VGA is getting pretty old school at this point.
But here’s the catch—you really need to specify which motherboard model you're looking at. See, there's a difference between having integrated graphics built into the processor or the motherboard versus using an external graphics card, which uses those other connectors I mentioned earlier. I just want to make sure you don't run into a headache; if you buy a motherboard that only has a VGA output but your processor doesn't have integrated graphics, you won't actually see anything on your monitor. You'd end up having to spend more money to upgrade and buy a dedicated graphics card just to get a signal.
This is more for those situations where your router and computer are in the same room—pretty close together—and if you go with the antenna setup like wearymason4 mentioned...
That’s a tough spot to be in—mostly because Windows 7 is pretty ancient by now, dating all the way back to 2009. Looking at the HP website under the driver section, it does say they support Windows 7, but that "missing" error you're seeing during setup? I'm guessing it's hunting for a chipset driver. That’s likely what's stalling the whole installation process. You’ll probably need to grab those specific Windows 7 chipset drivers from the HP site and bake them right into the installer. Basically, you're looking at building a fresh ISO that has both Windows 7 and the drivers pre-integrated... Oh, and one more thing—Windows 7 doesn't actually support USB 3.0 out of the box, so make sure you plug your flash drive into a USB 2.0 port when you try to install, otherwise, it won't see it.
I was thinking—whether you’re using Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or whatever browser you usually have open on your PC—you should be able to just log in to your email through there without any issues. Honestly, I don't think there's anything wrong with your actual email account itself; it feels more like a glitch within the Windows 10 app. It's probably just some weird bug in the software...
So, you're using the built-in Mail app in Windows 10, right? Have you tried just logging into your email through a web browser instead? It might be that the issue isn't actually with your account itself, but just some glitch with the Windows 10 app...
Andrew Peterson2 said:Larry Ortiz5 — how many GBs are you actually burning through in a day?? And while we're on the subject... when it comes to torrenting, wouldn't it be smarter to just set everything to dump straight onto an HDD??
Honestly, practically nothing. I keep my SSD strictly for the OS and programs—but games, torrents, general downloads, all that stuff goes straight to my HDD.
Why don't you try downloading CrystalDiskInfo to check the SSD's health? Actually, an even better idea might be to grab the manufacturer's specific toolbox from their website—it’s usually more precise. If that also shows zero percent remaining, then yeah, you really put that drive through the wringer. I've had my SSD for over three years now, and I just checked mine—it's still sitting at 96%. Honestly, I have no idea what you were doing with yours 😁 Did you happen to run a defrag on it by mistake? Also, is your SATA controller enabled in the BIOS? And just out of curiosity, how many gigabytes of data were you writing to it every single day? Unfortunately, reinstalling macOS isn't going to fix this one... if the hardware is physically worn out, you're looking at buying a new drive.
Jonathan Wood5 said:How big is your Windows folder on Windows 7? I'm running Windows 7 plus SP1, and my folder is sitting at 15.1 GB. It feels a bit hefty to me, though I don't see anything obviously wrong. System32 is taking up about 3.85 GB, and Microsoft.NET is around 1 GB. The swap file is disabled.
I'm actually using Windows 10, but if you're struggling with low disk space, maybe try deleting your system restore points or just running CCleaner to clear out all that accumulated junk...
It’s going to be pretty tough for anyone to jump in and help you out here since you haven't really given us any details—what's your actual setup looking like? Which version of Windows are you running? Also, when did this start happening? Have you tried doing a clean reinstall of your network card drivers yet? And just a thought—when you plug in an external card, did you make sure to install its specific drivers so you can actually get back online?
I ran into that exact same headache myself—turned out to be nothing more than a faulty HDMI cable. I just picked up a new one, swapped it out, and boom, problem solved. Sure, there's always a chance it could be the graphics card, but honestly? I wouldn't bet on it. At least you know the IBM is fine since you tested it on another computer and it’s working perfectly without cutting out. That really narrows it down to either the HDMI or the GPU, but I'm 110% certain it's just the cable.
Personally, the best money I’ve ever spent on fans was on $40, those Gentle Typhoon models—I actually have two of them running in my chassis right now. Not to jinx things, obviously, but my PC is incredibly quiet. Even with the GTX 1070, once it stays below a certain temperature and the fans hit that 0dB mode, you barely hear a thing. I just set everything to normal speed in the BIOS and called it a day...
There really should be an option to boot from a DVD drive so you can run a Windows repair... I actually dealt with something equally ridiculous a few years back on a different laptop—I had to flash the BIOS just to get the option to boot Windows 7 using legacy boot mode. It doesn't cost you anything if you have access to another working computer; you can just head to the manufacturer's website, grab the latest BIOS version, and run the update.
Oh, I just remembered—what about "quick boot"? You probably see that pop-up when you first turn the laptop on. Usually, it's one of those f10-f12 keys, so maybe give that a shot? There might be an option to select the optical drive in there.
It’s really not about how many inches your TV screen is—that’s just a distraction. What actually matters is the resolution. Since you mentioned you're running at Full HD (1920x1080), you're basically right in the sweet spot; that's pretty much the standard for most gamers these days. So, if your future card ends up being an RX 480, it should handle just about everything out there on ultra settings without breaking a sweat...