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You can't really beat pre-built ones for low-end stuff in terms of price. But for high-end machines that you want to tweak/upgrade a lot, self-building is the way to go if you have the time (more control and cheaper).
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It's not as much what's cheaper as much as it is being assured that when you build your own, you put the best components in it that you could afford.
I build my own (and have been since 1985) because I can pick/choose the components after diligent research regarding compatibility, reliability, etc, and can further make judgement calls as to where I can get away with an OEM (and most of the time, cheaper) component. I buy a lot of the components from a single source (usually NewEgg) to save shipping fees. It's not necessarily cheaper than buying a pre-built, but it's high-quality hardware, and I never have any hardware-related issues short of the two hard drives that went bad over the last 22 years.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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Hi There,
Myself Abhijit and need some input from your side about DEVCON. I hope you will help me in this regard.
I am working on module in which USB drive needs to be ENABLED or DIABLED through command line argument ON or OFF.
Initially I achieved it by changing registry values for USBSTOR and imagepath location. But as REBOOTING of system is required, I used devcon.exe to enable or disable USB drive. I used command
Devcon disable USBSTOR\DISK* to Disable USB and devcon enable USBSTOR\DISK* to enable USB. Devcon.exe was placed in my code folder.
Now problem is I want to remove devcon dependency and use devcon's code in my application for enabling or disabling USB drive.
I am not getting which functions to used for the same and how?
Do you have any idea or sample code in this regard with you so that i can proceed further.
I am getting lot of compilations errors when I include devcon.h and use functions from devcon.cpp like enumeratedevices and so on.
Can you please help me in this regard as this is very urgent for me? I do not have any prior knowledge about devcon.
Hoping a positive reply from your side.
Best Regards,
Abhijit Kulkarni,
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George weighs 245 pounds and drinks two triple lattes every morning. If each shot of espresso contains 490mg of caffeine, what is George's average caffeine density in mg/pound?
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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I know the answer, I know the answer!
12mg per pound.
Do I get a chocolate biscuit for being correct?
You always pass failure on the way to success.
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Is it true that it is better to unplug the battary of the laptop, when it is plugged to the AC current? it keeps the battary safe and long life timespan, since i mainly use the AC power when am working on my laptop.
Best Regards
Scorpion
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I think i remember reading somewhere (maybe on the manual!) that if the laptop is not going to be used for a while, then it should not be left with the charger in. Lithium batterys are still not very good these days, even from the date of production, every day their charge capacity gets every so slightly less. If i were to work on a laptop all the time, and it have wall power all the time then i would probably remove the battery. But ive also heard that leaving a lithium battery alone a long time, so that it has time to self discharge is not good. (im not exactly sure how long it takes though) So im not exactly sure what could be best, but since new batteries are so expensive there is probably alot of information around on google.
Dont forget that it might be good to keep the battery inside if you work on important things, its a darn good UPS 
//Johannes
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It's "battery" goddammit!
This message brought to you by Abrupt Spelling Solutions Human Assessment Systems. At ASSHAT, we know how to spell "moron".
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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It's better for your power usage to leave the battery out. The power consumption of the laptop is much lower when it's not topping up the battery all the time.
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Hello guys.
I have xperienced a problem with two of my hard drives.I had them connected on my friends' PC and when I took them to work to copy some things, they jus died.Firstly they opened, but now they cant open.When I connect them, the PC doesnt power on.I have them connected as slaves.I went back to the friends' PC to connect them again and now they dont open there either.
They have ver delicate information I cant affort to lose.So please guys, can someone help me with ways to retrieve this data.I knw now that they have been infected with a virus.But how do I retrieve the data back.
Thank you in advance.
kagiso
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Its doubtful that a virus can make a harddrive permantely not start, because it does not have the really really low level access, both of both hardware and software.
Since the computer doesnt power on (how far does it get? fans start spinning? screen turn on? bios show something) it could be a master/slave conflict, (unlikley) Most likely it could be static damage, or physicall abuse (ie that a chip has been crushed).
if this is the case replacing the hdds electronics (which is easy) with one of exactly the same model, and close production date, you should be able to get the data back.
Dont give up on the hard drive. Keep trying. Just dont do anything till your are sure it is the best thing you can do. As you might have limited time or tries in some cases...
You wrote "I have them connected as slaves.", well they can both have jumper pins set to slave, but only if they are on seperate IDE channels... It also seems strange that both die at the same time? How could this be? Tell us more info..
There is alot of information about hdds dieing since it is quite common, so like google around
As a start you might want to look at Hard Drive Recovery Part 1[^] And all of its parts, My Hard Drive Died | Scott A. Moulton[^]
//Johannes
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Well, when I say, "I connected them as slaves", I mean, one at a time.What happens is that when I connect them(because they do not have OS on them), I had to connect as slaves and the jumpers are set to slaves, the power doesnt come on.Fans came on once then died.Nothing came on again.No bios, no screen.Nothing.U switch on, nothing happens, and I mean, complete darkness with no ohm of power.
I mite have to try the electronics method coz my boss suggested something about the board underneath the drive, maybe its faulty.So he mite have to replace it for me.Thank you so much, you have been helpful.I will keep you posted if I manage to get there.
kagiso
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Slave/master has nothing to do with there being an OS on the disk. It has to do with which position on the ribbon cable they're plugged into, and each ribbon needs a master disk to control it, if you only have a slave drive it won't work.
Be aware that by breaking the cleanroom seal to do a circuit board swap you're allowing dust into the mechanism and massively reducing the drives expected lifetime as a result. If this works immediately copy all your data off the repaired drive and don't use it for anything else ever again. The other thing to consider is that if the data on the drive is worth paying a professional company several hundred to several thousand dollars for data recovery any sort of physical manipulation you do is going to greatly decrease the odds (and increase the expense) of getting your data back if it fails.
--
You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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dan neely wrote: Be aware that by breaking the cleanroom seal to do a circuit board swap you're allowing dust into the mechanism and massively reducing the drives expected lifetime as a result.
Ive taken apart many many hard drives, probably around 50 or so, some really old (20 mb) and new ones (120gb) i cant remember any drives which when the electronics board is removed air-tight seals are damaged...
Because both in new hard drives and old the wires go though air tight seals too, and all these wires are snap-off or simply pushed onto the board.
I can imagine some might have it, but its not very common.
//Johannes
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I'll take your word for it, I was repeating what I'd been told by others, but never've dismantled a drive myself to look, although I've been tempted to replace my ancient halfgig drives enclosure with Plexiglass and use it as an external just for giggles..
--
You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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dan neely wrote: I've been tempted to replace my ancient halfgig drives enclosure with Plexiglass and use it as an external just for giggles..
A friend of mine has done that, its quite neat to see the head skip around for different sectors. If you gonna do it, try to get a hard drive that doesnt have screws in the center of the metal lid (ie like a screw in the center of the spindle, or ontop of read-head swing arm)
They still go bad after a while (even if its in a clean room) since theres allways some grain which falls inside and tumbles around 
You can just take one and unscrew it right now, and smack it into some old computer and it will work fine with like windows and stuff for a few days (unless you decide to play with it like i end up doing  )
//Johannes
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That is a very educated insight Johannes.Will sure do that, or not do that
kagiso
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Thank you Johannes.I appreciate the insight.
I will sure follow it
kagiso
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Im glad i could help ![Jig | [Dance]](https://codeproject.freetls.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/jig.gif)
//Johannes
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matjame wrote: the power doesnt come on.Fans came on once then died.Nothing came on again.No bios, no screen.
POST should happen before the machine goes anywhere near initialising the IDE or SATA connections. I'd suggest that the problem has very little to do with the drives, and that in fact you've either knocked out the power connector to the motherboard or blown the PSU.
Have you tried another drive in this machine, or these drives in another machine?
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 I have one major problem. Can anyboday help me ....Here is a problem
1] I want to access my office computer from my notebook. It is working fine. But On my office machine if I connet to a dialup network of my client (which is must to run my application) I dont get connection of the office Pc from my notebook. It says that teh remote computer is busy.
How should I solve the problem.
2]
Is there any live chat avalable to get the support from.
Its Very Very urgent please help
Thanks
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If you have one major problem, which one is it? Question #1 or question #2? Ah heck, I take a stab at both of them. Notice in my response that I'm using the American colloquial version of the square bracket, also know as the "parenthesis":
1) Dialup network? Are you insane? Why don't you connect your laptop and desktop with a CAT5 cable, and dial out to the remote client machine?
2) There is no support. You're on your own. Cowboy-up and deal with it.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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I'm in the very early stages of creating a very simple home network, and had a question about connecting the printer.
In this picture, the wireless router is one without an internal print server. The printer is connected to one of the RJ45 ports on the router. In this scenario, would the laptop or PC be acting as the print server just as it would if the printer were connected directly to either of them?
My utlimate question is whether I need to get a wireless router or a wireless router with an internal print server.
Thanks,
DC
"A good athlete is the result of a good and worthy opponent." - David Crow
"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne
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You can get one of those single-port print servers (most are wireless AND wired). It would be cheaper than a) buying a network printer or b) buying a new router. It would also save wear/tear on the PC that you would otherwise be using as a print server, and would save in electric bills as well since powering up a PC costs a lot more than powering up a little printer server.
Look on NewEgg.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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