Anyone still running Windows 7?

driftingnomad68 said:What do you think? It's basically a mid-tier version, so it’s got a few extra bells and whistles compared to Home Premium:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...oducts/compare

It's totally fine (actually, probably overkill) for everything you're planning to do. When it comes to gaming, honestly, which version you're running doesn't make any difference at all...

As for the keyboard and mouse, just hit up Microsoft or find a local service center in your area and see if they can get their hands on them.

thanks for the reply 🙂 but I'm not even sure if I can do anything about the mouse because I totally trashed the warranty info... like, I have zero clue where it ended up :/

Honestly, they probably wouldn't even honor the warranty if there’s any kind of physical damage involved anyway. It might be worth just giving them a call to see what they say 🙂

driftingnomad68 said:And honestly, even if they did honor the warranty, they probably wouldn't cover it if there's any physical damage involved. Just give them a call and see what happens 🙂

whatever, it doesn't really matter because I've got a wired keyboard and mouse I can just use anyway... I actually just moved here from Switzerland and I'm still getting settled, plus my English isn't exactly perfect so I'm a bit nervous about calling them up haha... and yeah, the USB connector part just kind of snapped off the cord, which totally trashed it, damn... such a waste since the whole keyboard and mouse set is brand new and everything else is fine... just my luck...

And honestly, Windows 7 is garbage. This machine I use for my web design work takes four minutes just to boot up Windows 7 Enterprise, then another five minutes before it’s actually ready to go. Spec: Intel Core 2 quad 2.8, 9500 GT, and 8GB RAM if I recall correctly. It feels like that typical "it's brand new, so you better have money or you're pathetic" kind of nonsense. Plus, it's pulling 1.5 GB of RAM while idling... unbelievable. 😁

Something is definitely off with your PC—honestly, just wipe it and reinstall Windows. I’d bet my last dollar that if you actually bothered to check the Event Viewer system logs, the whole thing would be bleeding red.

I've got Windows 7 running on my laptop... but where do I even turn on Bluetooth??? I need it for my mouse, but I'm totally lost looking for the setting...

shadowjackal82 said:I've got Windows 7 running on my laptop... where do I even turn on Bluetooth??? I need it for my mouse, but I can't find the setting for the life of me...

First off, does your machine actually have Bluetooth built-in? And more importantly, did you actually install the drivers for it?

Douglas Garcia52 said:Do you have Bluetooth and did you get the drivers installed for it?

Since this is a newer Toshiba laptop with an i3 processor... if there's no Bluetooth, we might be stuck in a rut.
Not totally sure about the drivers, though... any idea where I should look?

Get more details on pairing Bluetooth peripherals with Windows 7 here

You can hunt down the drivers for your Toshiba laptop at this link

If you don't even know whether your laptop actually has Bluetooth or not, then honestly, we’re all in trouble here.
Look, just go to Google and search for the exact specifications of your specific model—type in every single letter and number from its full model name. Check if Toshiba uses some proprietary software you need to download and install, or if there's a physical button on the chassis to toggle it. Better yet, check that link I posted above for the drivers...

Look, the internet is right there in front of you. Use it to actually find some answers. 🙂

All fixed! Turns out I just needed to get those drivers installed... thanks everyone!

So, I’ve run into a bit of a mess—my Windows 7 isn't an original copy, and some Windows updates just installed themselves. I honestly thought it wouldn't be an issue, but I guess I was wrong. First off, I had to restart my PC about five times before everything finally loaded—it kept hanging on that initial black screen with the Windows logo right in the middle. Now that it's actually up, things feel a little sluggish, I think? But the main thing is that my second hard drive isn't showing up. I have my 500 GB drive where Windows lives and that's fine, but my other 1.5 TB drive—where almost all my data is—just won't load at all. I've tried restarting a few times already, but no luck. Any ideas on what I should do? I'd really appreciate some quick help here!

Does the drive actually show up in Disk Management (you know, right-click "This PC" and hit "manage")?

Benjamin King2 said:Is the drive showing up in Disk Management (like, right-click "This PC" and hit "Manage")?

Nah, I tried refreshing and checking everything—nothing really works. I guess I might just have to reinstall Windows.

Look, if you can't see the drive in Disk Management, then it’s not showing up in the BIOS either—this isn't some weird Windows glitch. You need to double-check your connections; make sure everything is actually plugged in right.

Benjamin King2 said:If it isn't showing up in Disk Management, then it probably isn't in the BIOS either—it might not be a Windows issue, so maybe just double-check that everything is plugged in right.

Everything was working perfectly fine until this morning—no issues at all—and now, suddenly, after those updates, it won't boot. I mean, it feels like it has to be a Windows thing to me... the PC hasn't been moved or anything, so there's no way a cable just popped loose or something—I really hope my hard drive didn't just die on me.

Can you actually see him listed on the POST screen when the computer boots up?

Benjamin King2 said:Do you see it listed on the POST screen when the computer boots up?

Well, it’s a pretty new machine—I’ve only had it for about two weeks—and honestly, it’s so fast that I don't really notice anything on the startup screen. I guess if I hit the key, an AsRock screen pops up—that's my motherboard, right?—but then it asks for some random password... which I didn't set, so I have no clue what it wants. I'm still having those boot issues, too—it always seems to hang on the "Starting Windows" screen, and I usually have to restart it before it actually loads (well, everything except the hard drive). This all started right after a Windows update, so maybe I should try uninstalling the updates?

Look, it’s definitely not ideal to be running unactivated Windows, but it's not like Microsoft is going to remotely wipe your hard drives just because they caught you using an unofficial version. Did you put this computer together yourself, or did someone else set it up for you? Honestly, your best bet is to pop that drive out and test it on another PC, or maybe just toss it in a drawer for a bit to see if things settle down.

Boot the computer using a live Linux CD—something like Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or Knoppix, I guess—and then just check if the entire hard drive actually shows up. 🙂