few p.c general questions!

[dsh85]

ok got a few things i need info so lets get straight too it!

1. im wanting to get additional ram to speed up the pc, i kno the type is ddr but how do i find out what speed and size is best to get for my pc?

2.ive a hard drive in my old pc, can i just plug and play this into mine as an additional storage space? will i need to remove all the windows98 shit off it beforehand? or does this matter at all, or can it just not be done

3. when fitting my old cd burner drive from old pc as mine was fooked i popped in the floppy disc drive just as it was there, the cd player was plug and play simple but the floppy drive has not come up. do i need to install summit? if so how can i find out what and where

cheers

[Karl]

1. Find out what motherboard you have, or if you still have its manual it'll tell you what RAM it can accept.

2. Yes, you can use this as a storage drive. Format the drive first though.

3. Right click on my computer, Properties, Device manager, See if anythings uninstalled / needs drivers.

[davidandrews5343]

floppy drives are plug and play really, u may have just put the cable on updisde down, can easily happen, is the power pluged in? check ur bios for it aswell

[dsh85]

technical terms doing me over here

right i checked devices and it has floppy disc drive controller or summit, it says its workin properly ill check leads at somepoint

does it have to be the handbook can i not find my spec out from my computer?

would i format it after fittin it to this pc? will this mean loosing the shit on it

[davidandrews5343]

best way to check ur ram, just remove what uve allready got on there, and read the sticker attached to it, take a pic if u cant make sense of it and ill have a look

[dsh85]

damn that sounds hard work also i was hoping to learn it all by sittin on my arse

[davidandrews5343]

u can just plug this other hard drive in, tho u may have to alter the pins telling the drive where it is primary or secondary or on cable select, i cant really explain this easily

[dalecheesy]

Sometimes shows the speed when you first start it up at the top of the post screen before it checks ide's etc depending on your bios. Alternativly get a program called aida32 which will tell you

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...nfo/AIDA.shtml

if your fitting another hard drive check to see which ide you're fitting it to, if there's a hard drive or cdrom etc on the cable already set the hard drive you're going to fit as slave. if its going onto an ide by itself set it as master. You can format it from windows if you want it wiped.

[dsh85]

i-qon technologies

amd sempron(tm) processor 2800+
1.60ghz, 192mb of ram


this any useful it was on the my computer page

so when i remeber looking inside the pc there was a lead for another hard drive im sure which made me think, this would work the same way as the cd did by being a slave? but theres no switch on the hd is there?

[dalecheesy]

There's jumpers on the back of it (where the ide cable plugs in) its just a matter of moving it to the correct pins. The front side bus for your processor is 333mhz so get 333 memory if you want to run it synchronously

[dsh85]

just looked inside the old pc at the hard drive and seen there is a slave setting, if i plug this under slave on the new pc is it as simple as that. nothing will be effected except it can just be accessed?

and in this case can i just clear out anything that isnt personal so to speak, windows 98etc

[dalecheesy]

If you're replacing a hard drive that was set as slave yup you can leave it as slave. (should be on an ide cable with something else attached though) If its going onto a seperate cable by itself change the jumper to the master pins. Yeah you can delete anything you want off it, format it etc

[dsh85]

it was the main hd on an old pc, im just wanting to run it as a spare space on this one below the one currently on it running everythin

so slave it and plug in the spare socket coming of the hd lead and bobs your uncle its there and accessable just as a space?

[dalecheesy]

You've got it. If it was the only hard drive attached in your old pc it will probably be set as master so pop the jumper onto the slave setting if its going onto a cable with something attached or if you have a cable with nothing on just leave it as master and ya up and running

[dsh85]

legend im gonna give it a bash! ill thank you if i can get back on and it dosent all go tits up

ill also look at floppy cable and get a pic of the ram

[dalecheesy]

No probs Danny. The floppy cable should have one side of it which is coloured red (just the wire), that needs to go furthest away from you when your plugging it into the floppy. (The ide cables have a red indicator which goes nearest to you) If that makes sense. Ide's normally have a little lug on them which means they can only go in one way but sometimes floppy cables don't.

[dsh85]

rightttt, the floppy lights are on but it seems there all not connected! i think that the plug may have popped out! does this go just below the power one that hits the motherboard? i noticed it looked like it fit but didnt think id knocked it out. it would explain why power but no connection

hard drive i realised i didnt have enough power supply! and also ive got pics of the back of this so you can tell me which is set to slave

also pics of the ram to come

plus i seem to have no sound hmm lol - edit i had input/output plug in wrong on speaker doh

[dalecheesy]

lol. If the floppy cable is round the wrong way the light will stop on all the time. The hard drive should have a guide on it to which pins are master/slave and cable select. Floppy power leads are smaller than the standard molex ones. Small white plug with 4 wires in it. Your motherboard should have 2 ide sockets and a smaller black one for the floppy.

[dsh85]

the floppy had no lights on at all when the plug was the other way round its now lit up so thats positive! anyways xmas shopping now so ill have a bash at it all later and upload them pics!

[dalecheesy]

No problem. another thing to try is if the floppy cable has 2 plugs on it (one half way and the other at the end)try using the other one. Enjoy ya shopping and don't spend too much