Zach

I have been racking my brain on this one. I am trying to update the BIOS on my Emachines tower, and I just cannot get the flashing sequence to start. The Readme file that came with the updated BIOS simply says to move files onto an empty USB drive (doesn't even say what format it should be in, but I assume FAT or FAT32), have the USB drive in the computer at power-on, and hold down 1 "at the menu". I have tried this at the boot-screen (the giant E), at POST, in the BIOS options screen, and even during Windows boot-up. Nothing I do has worked, and I find it extra frustrating because I'm typically very good with computers. Don't worry about telling me the old story of how BIOS updates can brick the motherboard or anything, because believe me, I know. I need to do this because the motherboard is reading my CPU temperature wrong (65C idle!) and it causes the computer to run the fans at top speed and occasionally shut down. I know it's just bad readings because I'm using an Opteron 180 with the stock cooler for an FX 8350, and the cooler only ever gets slightly warm. Thanks!

I have a pair of GTX 670's and a few videos I want to encode. The problem is that I cannot seem to get the encoding software to use the video cards. I know that there is a special chip (NVENC I think it's called) that is supposed to do this, but how do I use it? I've tried Free Studio, Hand Brake, and Format Factory, and none of these work. Thanks!

I have 2 of these chips and they supply 100 watts into the left channel and 100 watts into the right channel. I was wondering if there is any way to bridge these channels together and supply 200 watts into one load. That way I can use both chips for a 400 watt stereo. Thanks!

I have a pair of Corsair Force 3 240GB SSD's in a RAID 0 stripe together (128KB stripe size). Originally with only 1 drive, my boot times were around 20 seconds (from the initial BIOS beep to the desktop), but now my boot times are doubled. I ran the Passmark benchmark and it says that I get about 800MB/s continuous read and 400MB/s continuous write. I can also see this speed in Windows because I can copy a 3.3GB movie on the array in about 15 seconds. This shows me that the RAID array is working properly, since Corsair claims these drives get at most 550MB/s read. With this much bandwidth, why did my boot times go up so much?

I absolutely love my Llano FM1 socket A8-3870K APU. It is fast, cool, and cheap. But I just read about the Trinity FM2 A10-5800K APU that is said to be released some time this October. The stats are amazing, to say the least. 3.8 GHz stock processor speed with a 4.2GHz turbo, 800MHz Radeon HD 7660D on-board graphics, approximately 15% faster than the disappointing Bulldozer line, 2400MHz RAM northbridge, and the projected prices that I'm seeing are around $130 for their top of the line APU! This is fantastic! This, in my opinion, is AMD's combatant to Intel's i7 line. If this chip is as amazing as I am hoping it is, my computer is going to get a serious performance boost.

I have the above mentioned GA-A75-D3H motherboard, and I am concerned about the heat on the power-on mosfet's. The motherboard specifications state that they should stay very cool, but I have seen them hit 45 Celsius, much hotter than they should be. Is there any way to affix a heat sink to these? I want to avoid the small stick-on coolers because one of my friends used them, and one fell off and shorted out his video card. I've searched, but I cannot find anything made specifically for my system. Thank you.

I have an AMD A8-3870 Black Edition APU. It runs 3.0GHZ 4 cores and has Radeon 6550D HD graphics integrated. Now, my question is how can my temperatures get to (the lowest) 1 Celcius (33 Farenheit)? I have used multiple monitoring softwares (Core Temp, Speedfan, CPUID, the motherboard hardware monitor), and they all say the same thing. This is confusing me, since the ambient temperature is about 20C (69F). What's going on?

Well the last one of these I put up got great responses so I'm doing a second one! Same rules: I give 10 video game quotes and you all tell me what game it's from and who said it!

1: That's not the REAL [name removed], you numb skull! It's a robot!

2: I may not have a fancy medical degree, but when you get shot, you'll be glad I'm here.

3: HEEEEELP! Rats have eaten all the food! We're finished...

4: Sorry, but your princess is in another castle.

5: I am the Great Mighty Poo and I'm going to throw my s### at you!

6: Yeah, I dare ya, rage quit! Make us both happy.

7: Spontaneous human combustion... Yes, I believe that's correct.

8: These dogs are pussycats compared to the dogs in Pripyat.

9: I'm taking you down, plastic boy!

10: Your old friend neurotoxin. I'd take a deep breath and hold it... Oh I hate you so much.

Hey, everyone. So, who remembers their video game quotes? I will give 10 quotes and you guess who said that and from what game. 10 best answer points for the closest person!

1: Oh, thank God! You really saved my baccon, pal. Hey, where we going? Is this a jail break? I can't see a thing.

2: I had hardly gone beyond the asteroid belt when I picked up a distress signal. Ceres station was under attack!

3: We don't want to end up as crispy critters.

4: Hey, look. A cute little trinket. Maybe there's vodka inside, eh?

5: Big cash! Big prizes! I love it!

6: You think that armor's gonna help?

7: Geth rocket trooper unit.

8: -Double quote- I guess this makes us even, huh? - Not unless I piss myself. - That's a low blow (name removed).

9: Russians everywhere, sh##'s falling from the sky, we are screwed man, we are screwed!

10: What the hell kind of name is Soap?

Good luck!

I have the SNES 9X TYL MECM on my PSP 3001, and it claims that it can load IPS patches. I have the Super Metroid Phazon hack that I want to patch. I have named the patch and game the exact same, they are both in the same folder, they are both NTSC format, and they are both headerless. I can get the game up and running on my computer with no problems at all, but my PSP loads the game, then it finds the patch and starts to apply it. It gets to about 90% and says "Extending target from <a bunch of numbers> to <a bunch of numbers>" and then crashes. What am I doing wrong?

Ok, let me say first that MW3 was a decent game, and I am not talking about the multiplayer (I like the Survival mode a lot, actually). What I'm asking is was the campaign as much of a let down to you as it was to me? I felt that the lack of a nuke and the use of chemical warfare kind of made it into a Black Ops 2 sort of game. The change in Makarov's voice was bad and the whole game seemed thrown together in some places. Example: I found a weird void in the campaign right after Nikolai's chopper crashed. Upon examining this void, I fell through the floor and continued to fall endlessly until the PS3 froze on me. The frequent change of speed in the game was different from the constant full-throttle of the other 2 MW games, and the speed changes were in rather odd places. I feel that Activision nearly failed on this title. So, what are your thoughts?

I have a pair of JL 12w3-d4 sub woofers. I know that they are DVC 4 ohm and that they are pretty old. Because of the age, I cannot find a ratings list on them. The only thing that I saw (that was of little use) was a bunch of people arguing on some forum somewhere, and one of them said that it can handle 600 watts max. I just need to know for sure, since it seemed like they were just saying things to irritate each other. Any definitive help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I'm looking for a light up keyboard that I can put in my Toshiba L305 laptop. I want a built-in one, not a USB keyboard and I specifically want it blue. If you know where I can get one, please leave me a link. Thanks!

I'm using 10/3 with ground and I was wondering if I can run both hot wires at 20 amps and use only 1 neutral and ground for both of them. Is this possible? Or would I burn my house down?

I have 8 brand new D cell NiMh batteries by Tenergy rated at 1.2v 10000mAh running in series. I am using them to power an N64 and a 7.5" LCD screen. The total draw is about 2 amps when running. When I try to use this portable N64, I measure the voltage and I see about 9.54v. When I turn it on, the voltage drops quickly and in about 5 minutes, the voltage gets below 7.2v and the screen stops working. I have tried to charge them before with a small 400mAh charger, but, even when I left it charging for the day that it required, this still happened. Perhaps the batteries are faulty? Or maybe the charger is incapable of charging that big of a bank? I don't know, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks!