The Fake Geek - Part 24

SD Card giving “Memory Card Error”

I have a SD memory card and it was working fine until I put it in the SD slot on my notebook and it
said “Memory Card Error.” What do I do?

Although it’s a rare occurrence memory cards do sometimes fail. But it may not be a failure….

The most “popular” problem that I’ve seen is that you’ll put a card into a computer and “reorganize” the card by deleting all the folders and then making your own. The problem with doing that is the fact that cameras are usually pretty dumb. They have a set series of folders on the card with specific names and they will only read those folders. If the folders are gone the camera will just give you an error or tell you the pictures are gone. If you did delete the folders then just simply reformat the card using the camera.

If your getting the error in windows (or something similar) then it could be that you have the card locked. On SD cards there will be a tiny switch you can move on the side of the card. Make sure that’s not set on “lock”.

If you do that and the card still doesn’t work in either your camera or your computer then I would recommend trying a program called Smart Recovery. You can download it from http://pcinspector.de/ It’s a flash memory recovery program. You can use it to (hopefully) get your files off of that card.

Thanks for asking!

The Fake Geek

Does the Compaq Presario F565CA have a microphone?

Does the Compaq Presario F565CA have a built in microphone?

Yes it does. The microphone (which is stereo) is located at the top of the screen (looks like two little holes.) The laptop also supports using an external microphone via the front audio ports.

The Fake Geek

Is the Viewsonic 2255 any good?

What would be a good lcd 22-24 inch screen monitor for gaming? I’m looking into
purchasing the Viewsonic 2255 model, should I go through with it?

Thanks for asking!

The Viewsonic 2255 is a very nice monitor. I know a few people who are eying it and I’ve heard good things about it. For gaming and movies? Sure. It’s a great product.

The monitor I’d also recommend you look at is the Samsung 226BW it’s an absolutely beautiful monitor and it’s specs are better then the 2255’s. I’m also a Samsung monitor fanboy. (Heh.)

Basically if your going to do gaming you want a monitor that has a response time of 5ms or better and having a higher contrast ratio can’t hurt but make your images sharp. You also want to look at the resolution of the monitor (and check to see if your video card can support it.)

But specs are often misleading (especially contrast ratio) and different manufacturers use different measuring schemes. So the best way to choose the monitor is to actually try it out, look at it (not a picture of it but as it’s operating) and decide if that’s what you want to be looking at for hours at a time.

The Fake Geek

AMD vs Intel

who is better amd processer or intel

Thanks for the question!

The AMD vs Intel war has been going on ever since AMD started to clone Intel chips way back when. (Way back when means way before this Geek’s time.) A few years back the Pentium 4 was getting it’s butt handed to it by the much faster, much better Athlon 64 but those days are pretty much at an end.

Choosing whether to get an Intel processor or an AMD one is going to depend on what your looking for. Intel’s high end chips (such as the Core 2 Extreme) are much better performance-wise then anything AMD currently offers but on the lower end the performance gap is largely non-existant and you do save a little bit of money going with AMD.

So basically: AMD has more bang for the buck but if you need performance go with Intel.

The Fake Geek

(P.S. Image found on imageshack but watermark says http://www.razortrader.com.. Thanks!)

How do I use Recovery Console?

How do I access the recovery disc on my Medion PC from Future Shop? Presently I
have a screen which apologizes for not being able to start the PC and gives me
4 options – start in safe mode etc. – each option fails and sends me back to
the apology screen. I know there is a recovery partition but how do I activate
it – any help would be greatly appreciated – Gordon

Thanks for asking!

You will need to have the recovery discs that came with your computer. Boot from the disc and in the prompts you should see an option for recovery console. Choose this and continue to follow the prompts. The Recovery program will try to fix the problem your computer is having, if it isn’t successful then it’ll suggest a reformat.

Now if you don’t have the Recovery discs then you’ll need to borrow a Windows XP disc from a friend, boot from that and at the welcome screen press R and follow these steps (from Medion’s site):

Type “chkdsk /p” without the quotes and hit enter.

Type “fixboot” and hit enter

Now type “Y”and enter at the prompt

Finally Type “exit” and hit enter

Good Luck!

The Fake Geek

How do I connect two monitors to one computer?

where do you find PCI interface video cards that can support dual monitors?

Hi!

Even though PCI video cards have largely done the way of the dodo the last few years many computer stores still have a few dusty units laying around on their shelves. The only reason to really buy one of these is to run a dual-display (as you’ve said) because performance-wise their not much of an improvement over integrated chip sets found built-in on many computers.

The card I would recommend would be the GeForce FX 5500. Get the 256 MB version. It shouldn’t cost too much as it is a slightly older card and it sports two VGA ports on it. Again check local computer stores or look online (ebay has many.)

You can however do dual displays without buying another graphics card through the use of a VGA to USB adapter you can probably find one of these devices for cheaper then a card and they’ll do casual computer use (i.e. word processing and the internet) just fine.

Thanks for asking!

The Fake Geek

Hard Drive is not displayed in My Computer

I conected hdd Maxtor DiamondMax Plus8 40 GB to my pc. Bios recgognize it, device
manager also but in administrative tools disc managemant and my computer there
is no sign of it. I connected the hdd on IDE1 chanel as master.Any advice will
be helpful thanks.

Thanks for the question!

Now I’m assuming that you have another drive on IDE2 as a master as well and that’s how your running windows. I also take it that your trying to add more space to your computer.

The most likely culprit in this case is probably drive partitioning. When you buy a new Hard Drive it doesn’t come with something called a File Allocation Table (FAT). FAT basically tells Windows how to store and read data off that drive. Without the FAT Windows can’t read or write that data and My Computer does not see the drive.

What you then need to do is create this FAT system and you do that by a process called Partitioning. Here’s how in Windows XP:

1) Right-Click on My Computer and click Manage.

2)On the list to the left look down to the storage section and then click Disk Management.

3)Now what you should now see on the right is Disk 0 and Disk 1. Your original drive (the one running windows) should be called C:// and will already be formatted. What your looking for is a drive that shows: Unallocated Space. Just right click on that drive and select Create Partition. Follow the prompts.

4)Wait for a few minutes and when it’s done your drive should be up and running and displayed in My Computer!

The Fake Geek

Does the Fuji f700 have many exposure problems?

i’ve been reading that alot of people are having exposure problems with their
fuji finepix f700 cameras regarding pictures taken outside. is this true?

I have heard that some users are having trouble with the exposure settings on the camera. However the camera has been reviewed and while it did receive some low marks on exposure it shouldn’t be too bad compared to other cameras in it’s range. I think the trouble is that Fuji is offering a lot of manual control over the camera’s settings and those settings might just be off a bit.

Try checking out these tips here on changing your exposure settings on the f700.

The Fake Geek

How to monitor people on your computer

i want to see what everyone that uses my cp is doing on my cp. is there a store
in Canada that sell this kind of soft ware or do i have to buy it on line?

Thanks for asking!

You have a few choices and it all depends on what you want to monitor. Most people just want to monitor internet activity (i.e. websites that have been visited) and almost any parental tool out there should be able to do that. The two I would recommend are called CyberPatrol and Net Nanny. Both basically do that same thing but CyberPatrol has a few more features.

Basically many computer literate parents use “Parental Software” to monitor and restrict what type of sites their kids go on. If you just want to know what happens inside of a browser then these will work fine. Most computer stores should have these types of software.

Now if you want to know everything everyone is doing on that computer then you need to obtain something called a key logger. These programs record every single key you press on that keyboard and save that information in a file you can then read. I can’t think of any retail store that sells them but you can get them over the net (free loggers) and there are online stores that sell them.

When you implement this type of software make sure you tell everyone who is going to be using that computer that you will be monitoring them. If you don’t there could be messy legal issues later on.

The Fake Geek

How to add more ports to your router

My roommates all share a 4 port Linksys Wireless Router. All the ports are used
up and my wireless doesn’t seem to want to connect to their router (… a whole
different question…). Recently I have been sharing an ethernet cable with my
boyfriend’s computer, switching it back and forth bw the two comps which is
really annoying bc we can’t be plugged into the internet at the same time. Is
there a way I may be able to extend how many computers can be plugged into that
one router?? Thanks!

Thanks for the question!

Yes there is a way. Most routers (like yours) comes with only four wired ports. While this is fine for more home networks where people usually only have one or two computers it becomes frustrating in other situations. But not to fear! There is a way to extend the amount of ports on your router.

What you’ll need to buy is a Wired Hub. It’s a cheap device that will connect to your router and basically give it more wired ports. Here are the handy steps:

Buy a Wired hub. DLINK and Linksys are the most popular brands right now but it doesn’t have to be anything elaborate.
Make sure that the Hub you buy comes with an up link or MDI port. This is important. If it doesn’t have one of those then you’ll need to buy a crossover cable. The salesperson at the store should know whether it has an up link port or not.
Take it home, unpack it and run a standard Ethernet cable from the Hub’s up link port to any of the four ports on the router. (While your doing this turn the computers, the router, the Hub and your modem off.)
Assign and configure both of your computer’s IP address’s and you should have internet access!

Good luck!

The Fake Geek