Computer Science Canada

Who turns there computers off, and why?
Author:  octopi [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 1:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Who turns there computers off, and why?
Just wondering who turns there computers off, and why....

personally I see NO point in turning them off....
Author:  Tony [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:15 pm ]
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I turn mine off.

Clears the memory and lets the parts cool down overnight. Also saves on the electric bill or something... or so I was told.
Author:  Dan [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:18 pm ]
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I never turn mine off, alougth resatring comp has some small pluses like clreaing memory it also cuts the life of the computer down each time. There have been studys done that show the fewer boots and longer the life of the computer.

Also i got computers that are import for my home netwrok wich i whont to stay on so i can keep it funcuale.
Author:  Amailer [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 5:25 pm ]
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i turn mine off Sad
sad Sad
Author:  Mazer [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 5:57 pm ]
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i haven't turned my comp off since the last time i formatted sometime in the summer. i'm just too busy... er... buying stuff online. yeah, that's it, buying stuff...
Author:  Kingnoz [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 7:46 pm ]
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i always turn mine off at night...or else i can't sleep cuz i constantly hear the fan spinning
Author:  Martin [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:01 pm ]
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I turn my computer off for many reasons.

1. it gives the memory a chance to clear.
2. it saves electricity. Waste not want not.
3. my computer boots in 20 seconds so I don't really care
4. reduces the chance that a surge'll catch it and fry something pricey. And yes, I do have a surge protector, but still there's always the chance.
Author:  Tony [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:05 pm ]
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no kidding... when people say to keep electric things off during thunderstorm - its for a reason. When a lightning stroke my house, it fried my modem.. Though I think the shock came though the phone wire since it also fried one of the phones in the house Confused
Author:  Amailer [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:16 pm ]
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Happnes all the time Very Happy
Author:  octopi [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:18 pm ]
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The device being turned off isn't enough you realize.....you have to have a switch off between the device and the electical source. (Have to turn a power bar off.) (Or the switch on the back of the power supply)

Pressing the button on the front of your computer won't do anything to help you from lightning strikes. Your motherboards still getting power when its off. Power goes from your power supply, to your motherboard, and then your motherboard to the power switch on the front.

The power switch on the front's not between the power supply, and the motherboard. So you can still get fried.
Author:  Amailer [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:21 pm ]
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Well, it hasen't happned to many people who turn it off with the front switch -.-
Author:  Tony [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:38 pm ]
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I turn off the power supply switch Wink
Author:  octopi [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:50 pm ]
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...Yah, amailers right.....it also doesn't happen to many people who leave them on either...go figure...

Honestly...who has accutally had a computer fried by lightning.....in my city....the power goes out when theres a lightning storm, associated with that are power surges, before the power acctually goes out. How come nothing I owns ever been fried?

Maybe that power bar does do something? Either way....back to amailers point, I am betting that almost everyone who owns a computer has it plugged into a power bar....almost all power bars are power/surge protectors.

So how can you say that just because people who turn the computers off are protected? It makes no sence....I think if you look at the issue, the same number of people are protected, regardless of if they turn there computer off using the power supply switch, the power bar switch, the front switch, or if they leave it on.

Personally I know NO ONE who uses a computer without a power bar...why well maybe because the average power outlet has 2 sockets......one for the monitor, one for the case.....most people have more then that.

Anyways...you can't just associate the fact that people who use the front power button to turn a computer off are safer then anyone else...without looking at the real facts.
Author:  Blade [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:09 pm ]
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he's right.... don't bother arguing...the only comps that have the switches connected to the power supply were the OLD AT style computers... everyones computer now is controlled by the mainboard... power to the mainboard then the switch... just like octopi said... you are NOT safer unless you cut power to the powersupply... if you can't see that, then you are dumber than what i took you for

edit: most of this was directed towards amailer -- meaning "your computer is safer during a storm when turned off"
Author:  Tony [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:17 pm ]
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Blade wrote:
if you can't see that, then you are dumber than what i took you for


I hope you aren't talking about me Confused

I'm not saying my computer is safer or anything at night. Just saves on electrisity and clears RAM. It doesnt lag as bad as my friend's computer which he leaves on for weeks Wink

as for the fried modem - its power supply is connected directly to the socket (well though the bar), not though the computer. And as I mentioned before the shock probly came in though the phone wire Confused

And I completely agree with octopi 8)
Author:  octopi [ Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:28 pm ]
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Yup,

Just for people who don't know, I will explain how ATX motherboards work.

When a computer is turned off by shutting down, or using the front power switch the computer goes into sleep type mode. The motherboard still gets +5v of power from the powersupply, at about 700mA, up to 2.0A depending on the powersupply.

The motherboard uses this +5v to test to see if the power switch has been hit. The power switch on the front is a momentary switch. The motherboard supplys 5v to the switch and when someone presses the button the 5v becomes 0, and the motherboard detects this drop in voltage, and signals the power supply to provide power to the rest of the motherboard.

This is what allows features such as Wake on Ring, Wake on Lan, Wake on Click, and Wake on Key to work. The motherboard supplys voltage to the specified device for the sole purpose of deciding if its time to wake up from its sleep mode. Wake on Lan works by having the network card wait on a specific service for a connection, Wake on Ring works by having the modem wait for a dial connection, and once one is made the computer starts up, Wake on Click supplys voltage to the mouse, and monitors it for a double click(usually), and wake on key supplys voltage to the keyboard, and waits for a certain key combination, and in some cases, any key combination.

Once one of these things has occured the motherboard signals the power supply to feed power to the other parts of the motherboard, and regular bootup occurs.

When in this sleep mode you are just as likely to be a victim of a lightning/electrical surge as you are when your computer is on, and running. So turning the front power switch off does nothing but save a little power. (Plus as dan mentioned, the bootup stage for a hard drive is one of the most strenious for it. Which is a common reason that laptops which usually have the harddrive set to stop when not being used to save power, have there harddrives fail more often. A computer that is turned on and off more times is more likely to have hard drive trouble then one that is left on.)
Author:  Martin [ Thu Sep 25, 2003 3:29 pm ]
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Sounds good. I just flick the switch on my power bar.
Author:  Dan [ Thu Sep 25, 2003 4:10 pm ]
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octopi wrote:
...]
Honestly...who has accutally had a computer fried by lightning.....


*dan puts up his had*

i was at lake during big thuderstorm and ligthing hit some where near the place and a big power suger came in and hit my lap top. lucky it only blow up the battery. (i think it was chaging it at the time).
Author:  krishon [ Thu Sep 25, 2003 5:40 pm ]
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i turn mine off...purty much to save electricity
Author:  AsianSensation [ Thu Sep 25, 2003 9:27 pm ]
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I turn mine off, but it has an annoying syndrome.

whenever downloading off kazaa, if I turn off the the powerbar, everything in My Shared Folder is wiped out...Strange, even if they were finished downloading.

unfortunately, I found out the hard way, after I accidentally turned off my powerbar with all my files in that folder...
Author:  krishon [ Fri Sep 26, 2003 5:01 pm ]
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haha, well look at the bright side, u might have deleted some unwanted files Wink
Author:  PaddyLong [ Fri Sep 26, 2003 5:21 pm ]
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I turn mine off because it's too noisy to sleep with it on
Author:  Asok [ Fri Sep 26, 2003 8:44 pm ]
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I leave mine on because the power supply fan and CPU cooling fan act as white noise Wink
Author:  PaddyLong [ Sat Sep 27, 2003 2:33 pm ]
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heh ... if I only had a psu fan and stock cpu fan then sure it'd be good white noise... but I have 8 case fans and a noisy cpu fan
Author:  Blade [ Sat Sep 27, 2003 3:20 pm ]
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i have 6 case fans, cpu and psu fan.... 3 of the case fans have LED's and my cold cathode is sometimes on... and i leave it on lol.... i have 2 other comps in my room... so its never quiet... i find it easier to sleep... i'm so used to it that its creepy in my room with the computers off...
Author:  rizzix [ Sun Sep 28, 2003 11:24 am ]
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i have 4 different fans. 2 of which i can control the speed (thus the noise). but the other two are always on full throttle, which is 1000*louder than the two i can actually control. how frustrating!!!

i also have a Cube (a mac). A cube if you didn't know already, has not fans. It uses some odd ventilation technology and design to keep it cool.

Silent. Peace. Quiet.
Author:  Asok [ Sun Sep 28, 2003 3:28 pm ]
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rizzix wrote:
i also have a Cube (a mac). A cube if you didn't know already, has not fans. It uses some odd ventilation technology and design to keep it cool.


WOW! Heat sinks blow my mind with this new technology! Laughing
Author:  PaddyLong [ Sun Sep 28, 2003 9:48 pm ]
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peletiers > all for crazy cooling ;D
Author:  Amailer [ Sun Sep 28, 2003 10:10 pm ]
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How about just put an AC in there?
No noise ;D
Author:  Tony [ Sun Sep 28, 2003 10:12 pm ]
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why not just dump the whole thing in a bucket of liquid Nitorgen for that matter? Laughing
Author:  krishon [ Mon Sep 29, 2003 4:22 pm ]
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lol, tony has a good point there
Author:  Blade [ Mon Sep 29, 2003 7:16 pm ]
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there are people who use liquid nitrogen to cool their computers....
Author:  AsianSensation [ Mon Sep 29, 2003 10:38 pm ]
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really? isn't liquid nitrogen expensive? and how hot do they expect their computer to be?

I'd understand if it was a mainframe computer or whatnot, but a PC?
Author:  Corybu [ Wed Oct 01, 2003 10:25 pm ]
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Back to the main question... lol.

I turn my comp on standby, just so its not draining off excess current, and so that I dont have to go through startup whenever I want to use it.

(Has anyone here noticed that after a few months, an xp computer can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 mins to boot up? Why is this? And how the hell do I fix it?)

Sometimes Ill completly shut it down, just to hopfully increase performance a bit.

I leave it on siometimes too like if im on Kazaa. (To raise user rating, or to download movies and whatnot)

Its usually on standby though.

And my girlfriends power supply got fried in a storm. She thought it was the whole comp, and didnt know untill she got the PS fixed. Shes on a surge protector and everything...

And did you guys know that a surge protecter gets less effiecnt every time it takes a surge?
Author:  Tony [ Wed Oct 01, 2003 10:33 pm ]
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Corybu wrote:
if im on Kazaa. (To raise user rating


you do know there's kazaa lite, dont you? Rolling Eyes

its kazaa - spyware + functionality + lvl 1000 user rating Laughing
Author:  Corybu [ Thu Oct 02, 2003 2:02 am ]
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Is it always 1000 user rating?

Mine is 1000 anyways, lol.

And the spyware is already on my comp, so im not too worried.

I have Gain though... Grrrr @ Gator... it came with my DivX player... Sad

Anyone know a good non-spyware one thats also free?

I dont want gator on my comp. Stupid popups...
Author:  Blade [ Thu Oct 02, 2003 8:06 am ]
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if i were you.....
1. get rid of kazaa
2. get adaware/spybot and use it to get rid of all the spyware
3. get kazaa lite

because you do know that when you uninstall most software it doesnt get rid of the spyware that comes with it
Author:  Mazer [ Thu Oct 02, 2003 1:00 pm ]
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Corybu wrote:

I have Gain though... Grrrr @ Gator... it came with my DivX player... Sad

Anyone know a good non-spyware one thats also free?


dude, do a google search on xvid. it's from the makers of divx and it's better and free.
Author:  Corybu [ Thu Oct 02, 2003 1:18 pm ]
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Mazer wrote:

dude, do a google search on xvid. it's from the makers of divx and it's better and free.


Thank you Very Happy

Ill do it right now.

And ill get kazaa lite.

Thanks everyone.
Author:  Corybu [ Thu Oct 02, 2003 1:49 pm ]
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ok...

I am not even going to pretend to know what to do with this XviD thing...

Its source code apparently... What the hell do I do? lol.
Author:  Mazer [ Thu Oct 02, 2003 2:18 pm ]
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yeah... uh.. not sure. i remember having a hell of a time trying to find it in the first place. try a search for xvid codecs or xvid codec download and see what you can find.
Author:  Blade [ Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:42 pm ]
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umm... absoutly EVERYTHING you need for making movies, encoding movies, playing movies can be found at one simple site....

http://divx-digest.com

all the divx, xvid, and other codecs you've never heard of can be found here...
Author:  Homer_simpson [ Fri Oct 03, 2003 8:31 pm ]
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i turned off my computer at nights for the past too weaks cuz i had no internet=no webserver=no downloads! Crying or Very sad
stupid rogers!!!! Evil or Very Mad
Author:  Blade [ Fri Oct 03, 2003 8:40 pm ]
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= no spam
Author:  Corybu [ Fri Oct 03, 2003 10:25 pm ]
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What is up with Rogers?

Homer, are you getting a "Ip conflict error", by any chance?

My Gf and her mom are on Rogers, and theyve been having troubles connecting for the last week or so. Whats up with that?

They can load a webpage, but it takes about 20 mins, they can connect to The Dark Age Of Camelot games though... I think it may be something port related.... Do games connect on port 80 (Thats the HTTP port, I believe)?

Somethings odd at rogers, and they wont provide tech support for anyone using a linksys router (which my gf and her mom are on).

Let me know if you get yours fixed, and how, and if you get that error.
Author:  Tony [ Sat Oct 04, 2003 12:10 am ]
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ip conflict error?

my quess would be that rogers started to give out IPs that are already in use Confused Heh, reminds me of the cheap airline company - Aeroflot. Its run by russian btw (soo cheap). Anyways, they would sell 20~30 tickets more then they're seats on the airplane itself. And if you're late for regestration - thats just too bad. They tell you to find a place to stay for half a week before the next flight Laughing

That wasn't related, but still funny
Author:  Corybu [ Sat Oct 04, 2003 12:41 am ]
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I thought about that (multiple users on one ip).

And I also remembered the blackout, and think their router may have been damaged, but somehow only started giving problems recently, but then Homer, and another friend of mine (also on Rogers) started having problems... Whats going on?

Did they actually run out of IP's? If so, why not use the new ip scheme... (its a new idea they were toying with last I checked, it takes 3 standard chalkboard lengths {not full, just acroos, in one line} to write down the number of possible addresses.)

They need to fix the problem though, or im gonna have to bust some skulls, lol. I havent been able to play Diablo 2 with her in forever... *grumbles incoherently*
Author:  Tony [ Sat Oct 04, 2003 12:47 am ]
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heh, if you want, you can play in D2 with my bro. Though all he does since he got a lvl 85(I think) zon is duel... duel and bitch that his items suck Laughing I donno how he's expecting to get any items from dueling other players.
Author:  Corybu [ Sat Oct 04, 2003 1:36 am ]
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Tell him to enter dueling competitions. You can win prizes if youre good.

An 85 zon could win, if hes good.

I play open battle.net, so we can play out chars in singleplayer when were not playing togther (we started before I got broadband, lol.)

We play mods and stuff, cause normal d2 lost its edge.
Author:  Homer_simpson [ Sat Oct 04, 2003 1:51 pm ]
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Blade wrote:
= no spam

I never spammed =Þ

and no it wasn't an "IP Conflict error"... in fact i have never had problems with rogers... the speed had always been high and no disconnections... but when we moved it took them more than half a month to transfer our service... =( and right now if u come to house u'll see wires hanging on the trees coming from the cable source and comin to my house... we've been told it's temporary =S
Author:  Corybu [ Sat Oct 04, 2003 4:20 pm ]
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Quote:
wires hanging on the trees


I would hope its temporary... thats horrible, lol.

Im moving at the end of this month... I think I may loose my sympatico Sad

back to 56k... blah...
Author:  Blade [ Sat Oct 04, 2003 5:04 pm ]
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right now i have 3 isps..
rogers, sympatico ultra high speed, and amtelecom... cuz i moved and havent canceled yet

with rogers i hadnt had any problem except for slower speeds... it was always at 1.3 mbps instead of 1.5 mbps...
Author:  Homer_simpson [ Sun Oct 05, 2003 1:24 am ]
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i had 2.0+ at my apartment... 8)
and did u just find a gold mine or something?! u got Rogers, sympatico high speed and ultra??!!
Author:  BlAcK TuRtLe [ Tue Oct 07, 2003 8:22 pm ]
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I personally shut it off but my parents and little bros do and now my comp is in pretty bad shape from being turned on and off 3-4 times a day for 2 years. lol oh well. they dont believe me. I think it should go on in the morning then off at night. Its the perfect balance.
Author:  BryX [ Tue Oct 07, 2003 10:49 pm ]
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The New IP scheme is called IPv6 rather then the stardard old IPv4 which has been used for ages Shocked IPv6 is short for "Internet Protocol Version 6". IPv6 is the "next generation" protocol designed by the IETF to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IPv4. The IPv4 protocol is nearly 20 eyars old now and is quite limited to how many IP address it can have so it makes sense then to move to the IPv6 protocol. THis gradual change is being made over many years since most of the worlds servers run on IPv4. The newest version of IE supports this protocol and uses it when it comes accross websites that use IPv6. Hopefully ISPs like Rogers will soon take advantage of this technology so that these "IP conflicts" stop occuring. I know it's pissing me off. and by the way rogers doesn't supply tech support for ANY routers, the cheap basterds they want u to pay an extra 10$ per month for another IP which they obviously can't even give you with all thse IP conflicts so ur actually doing them a favour by saving them IPs by having a router Rolling Eyes dumb fucks, i mean honestly. OH and another great advantage of IPv6, it's WAY faster then IPv4 \o/ it uses a more efficient packet sending meathod that speeds it up like 500% so faster internet speeds are nearly at hand Very Happy that is if people like rogers dont charge 60$+ a month to utillize this new speed Rolling Eyes
Author:  Homer_simpson [ Wed Oct 08, 2003 6:53 pm ]
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speaking of which does anyone know how i can change my ip... i tried ipconfig but it doesn't really change yer ip...
Author:  Tony [ Wed Oct 08, 2003 8:29 pm ]
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well if you got a static IP (rogers) then you can't change it. If you have dynamic (Sympatico) you can just reconnect and you should get a new one... or just release your IP though ipconfig and update it.
Author:  Corybu [ Wed Oct 08, 2003 9:07 pm ]
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can you run ipconfig in xp?

I tried running winipcfg, like I used to do in win 9x, but its gone, and when I try ipconfig, it runs a dos prompt, and shuts itself down... any ideas?
Author:  BryX [ Wed Oct 08, 2003 9:26 pm ]
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xp can definitly run ipconfig, jsut goto run type cmd to go into the command prompt first then type ipconfig Wink
Author:  Blade [ Wed Oct 08, 2003 9:29 pm ]
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heh..... no gold mine.... just havnet got around to shutting it off... but no i dont have sympatico high speed and high speed ultra... just ultra

but we cant use rogers and sympatico where i live now
Author:  Corybu [ Fri Oct 10, 2003 8:07 am ]
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Ok, thanks for the info, BryX. Smile
Author:  roer [ Tue Nov 25, 2003 7:13 pm ]
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I used to fold 24/7 with around 8GHZ of folding power..energy bill got high and the room was really really hot sometimes (poor air circulation in my basement), I still leave my main machine on 24/7. Why? Who knows...
Author:  Rudiger [ Tue Nov 25, 2003 9:55 pm ]
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ok the thing you are looking for is NIMO CODEC PACK that is like divx but it is widows. And one of you has a mac. wow. Your like a alimit n00b.
i run my computer 24/7 because it is the server so if its of the internets gone. so its my job to keep the internet running. Very Happy .

do you have thous parnets that they breack something on the computer the blam you or some one in your family?
Author:  FDisk87 [ Sun Dec 07, 2003 3:10 pm ]
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I turn my main workstation off when I go to bed because it is noisy, gotta love the additional fans.
Author:  yuethomas [ Mon Dec 08, 2003 10:08 pm ]
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I've learnt my lesson. I always turn off my computer now.

It was one sunny day. The computer had been on for about a week, which I was really proud about. I popped in a disc and started watching anime. BAM. The computer froze.

I didn't take it to heart. I rebooted a machine, began surfing the net, and when it got to a page with flash animation, BAM, the computer froze.

I didn't take it to heart. I just kept on using the computer, until because of nothing at all, BAM, the computer froze, and took my hard drives with it.

I opened my case to find six popped capacitors on the motherboard. Crying or Very sad

Luckily, my father being the engineer that he is, took six capacitors of similar capabilities from an old monitor, fixed them on, and whoosh, it worked.

I spent the next three days reinstalling OS and software.
Author:  roer [ Fri Dec 12, 2003 5:55 pm ]
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yuethomas wrote:
I've learnt my lesson. I always turn off my computer now.

It was one sunny day. The computer had been on for about a week, which I was really proud about. I popped in a disc and started watching anime. BAM. The computer froze.

I didn't take it to heart. I rebooted a machine, began surfing the net, and when it got to a page with flash animation, BAM, the computer froze.

I didn't take it to heart. I just kept on using the computer, until because of nothing at all, BAM, the computer froze, and took my hard drives with it.

I opened my case to find six popped capacitors on the motherboard. Crying or Very sad

Luckily, my father being the engineer that he is, took six capacitors of similar capabilities from an old monitor, fixed them on, and whoosh, it worked.

I spent the next three days reinstalling OS and software.


Wow thats a bad story..Ive had this computer up for about 3 weeks now and I know Im wearing down my hard drives Wink
Author:  DanShadow [ Tue Dec 16, 2003 12:03 pm ]
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I turn my computer off at night only when im not running Virus Scanner, popup killer, or defraging

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