The Hammer

I own a Sony Vaio VGN-NW150J (running on Windows 7 64bit). The other night there were quite a few updates and after those updates I noticed that my function keys, specifically for the volume and screen brightness were no longer working. I tried re-installing the original drivers, but it did not help. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Thanks!

Back in December a friend of mine hacked my Wii (my Wii is an original. I got it not too long after it was first released by Nintendo). Wednesday was the first time in months I've turned on my Wii to play them after I could not get the games to load (I'm using USB Loader GX and they're on my external hard drive). After a while I finally got them to load and spent about an hour playing. I turned off the system and when I tried to get back on later the games refused to show up and still won't. On USB Loader GX it says on the bottom there are "0 Games," but it has the space taken up by the games and when I plugged my external hard drive into my computer the games are all there. The format for the games is wbfs. I asked my friend and he had no idea what was wrong. I don't know much of anything about this stuff, but could someone give me a hand on how I can play these games again? Whichever answer works gets best answer. Thank you! If you need any more info to answer please don't hesitate to e-mail me.

I'm looking to buy a GPS, but I am a bit unsure of which to get. I've spent about 3 days reading through different models and reviews and I am caught between the Garmin Nuvi 42LM and Garmin Nuvi 50LM. Does anyone have a recommendation on which is a better model, or a different model that would suit me better? I'm not looking for something with Bluetooth and all the fancy additions. Just something with will get me from point A to point B and is reliable. Thanks!

I own a '93 Altima and have had a lot of trouble with it. I keep bringing it into shops and no one seems to be able to fix it. This is the problem. About four months ago it started to idle really hard and I began having difficulty getting out of first gear (I drive an automatic). Lately I've noticed that when this happens white smoke seems to be coming out of the exhaust. Over the summer I was having trouble with my radiator, had it fixed and had another problem with it about 2 months ago. Lately the coolant level in the radiator is low, but the overflow is fine. I've been researching this and all the only answer I can seem to find is I could possibly have a problem with the head gasket. I really don't know much about cars, but is there anything I might be able to check to see maybe see what the problem might be? Every time I bring my car into the shop it doesn't idle hard nor is there any trouble with the acceleration, or white smoke from the exhaust. It only seems to happen when I'm driving by myself.

I'm a college student and I currently drive a 1993 Nissan Altima GXE. I bought it a little over a year ago and it's been nothing but a money pit. As soon as I can manage to save up enough (which will most likely be around the summer) I plan on selling this and buying something else. Is there anything anyone can recommend that is affordable for a college student and very reliable? Thanks.

I have an older Panasonic dvd/cd/radio that has a receiver built into it. It came with a surround sound speaker set. I now have a Sharp HD TV and a Sharp bluray player. Is it possible to hook up the Panasonic dvd player in a way that would allow me to use the surround sound system while watching movies on the bluray player? Thanks!

It used to work on my laptop (running on Windows 7 64 Bit) and recently the application no longer works when I connect my phone to my laptop. I have a Samsung Rugby. Even when I do not have my phone connected the application will not open. I have tried running the application with difference service packs to no avail. Is there something special I need to do to run this application, or maybe a reason why I cannot open it? I have tried uninstalling and re-installing different versions and all do the same thing.

How can you tell if a Star Wars Return of the Jedi style "A" movie poster is an original, or a reprint? I have the opportunity to buy one and want to make sure it's an original. I know reprints were made of this particular style. Thanks!

I'm working on a paper and can't find a list of cyber terrorist organizations. The only two I know are Anonymous and Lulzsec. Anyone know a website that lists them? Thanks.

I have a terrible professor and he never explains how to do anything. This is the question.

"What mass of water at 82 oC should be added to 120 grams of water in a container having a heat capacity of 14.0 J/oC at 9.50 oC to give a final temperature of 37.0 oC ?"

I can do all the math calculations after, but I just need an explanation as to how the problem is set up. The answer is given (75.4g water).

Any help is really appreciated. Thank you.

I've been having a problem where I go to start my car ('93 Nissan Altima) and the only thing that happens is all the lights on the dash come on. After I take off the E-brake and shift the transmission it starts up. Today while sitting at a stoplight my car got quiet and cut out. I sat there for about 10 minutes trying to restart it with no success. After about 15 minutes it started back up. Would this be the alternator, fuel pump, or something else? Thanks.

I drive a '93 Altima GXE. When I first got the car back in May, the radio worked fine. Within the past few months, the radio has been having trouble. Sometimes it will play normally for 5 minutes, and others it will only play for one. The signal is still coming through, but every station gets terribly distorted and it sounds like a loud screeching sound. Any ideas on if it's the radio or if it's the car's antenna? Also, what would be a good reasonably priced fix that would allow me to keep my cassette player being I have a cassette adapter ipod. Thanks.

Long story short, my amazing roommate took a 5 day trip and the night before he left he decided to leave food out on his desk. 2 days later the room started to get a wicked odor and I noticed the food was covered in mold. I through it out and removed all the dishes from the room and have had the window open the entire day. I also sprayed an air freshener and still can't get the smell out. Is there any type of odor remover I could use to get it out? Thanks.

Recently bought a used car and got screwed on the tires, I'm planning on buying 4 new tires today and would like to know which of these brands are the best; Firestone, Falken, or General. Thanks.

I currently own a Vaio that is a year and a half old. For the past month it's been distorting any video or audio I play (apparently an issue with Vaio's that I didn't know before I bought it). I'm planning on bringing it back to Best Buy and getting a new laptop within the next few months (it's still under warranty). What would be the best laptop to buy for a college student? I ruled out a Mac because I'm not into any form of arts. I just need a laptop for basic internet surfing with a strong CPU and a decent amount of RAM. Please explain your recommendation, thanks.

No net books please.

I met a girl the 2nd week into college (no shared classes and live in different dorms so we only talk on fb and if we happen to see each other). A few weeks back, I thought I was getting somewhere and then she just ignored me for a week. When I stopped saying hi to her, she started talking to me again. A few days ago I asked her if she wanted to see a movie with me. She said no because she doesn't have time with finals next week. I asked her if she would be up for it after the break and she said "yeah, maybe." When I was getting lunch a few hours later, she walked in, smiled and mouthed hi at me. She sat down at the table next to me with her friend but didn't turn to face me, even though there were about 10 other tables open. When she got up to leave, she turned to me, smiled and said "I'll talk to you later" (the way she said it I wouldn't really classify as flirty, but she never spoke to me with that tone before, let alone say goodbye when she left if we were in the same place).

Now for the million dollar question, am I just crazy, or does there actually seem like she might have some interest in me?

Ok, so instead of just recording part of a song to use as a ringtone, I'm trying to edit a song with audio editing software and use that as a ringtone (it sounds clearer). Every program I try exports the file as a WAV and once I get it on to my phone (it gives me the option to convert the file to a WMA, which still doesn't work) it will play but my phone won't let me set it as a ringtone. Are there any free programs I can use that will let me do this, or is there a way I can save it to a different file format that will allow me to set it as a ringtone? Thanks. Also, my phone is a Samsung Eternity if that helps at all.

I upgraded my Vaio that ran on Vista to Windows 7. After the upgrade, I noticed that none of the function keys (including volume control) are working now and every time I turn on my laptop it comes up with an error message that says "kernal debugger needs to be deactived," or something like that. Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks.

I was having some problems with a laptop I'm planning to sell so I uninstalled the OS (XP) and reinstalled it. Did reinstalling the OS wipe the hard drive?

I have a 4 1/2 year old HP zv6000 laptop. Back in September I suddenly started having problems and now it won't go past the "windows is setting up" screen during start-up. Is this a hard drive failure or a problem with the motherboard? Also if anyone happens to know, is there a way to remove the IDE connector (the pins on the hard drive that connect it to the motherboard) from the hard drive? (This is what it looks like if you're unsure)

http://bixnet.net/images/NBHD-IDE-Connector.jpg

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.