Question:

Hello Tony,

I was wondering if I could impose upon you for some advice. I have a Sony PC with a dual monitor capable video card (one DVI connection and one Analog). It is currently hooked up to a 19” LCD monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse using the DVI connection. The computer is in my study at a computer desk.

I’m about to purchase a 52” LCD TV for the study and would like to set up my PC so that I can optionally work from my other desk using a second wireless keyboard and mouse and the 52” LCD TV as the other computer monitor. I’ve found TVs that offer analog or DVI PC connections. The cable distance (up the wall, over the ceiling and down the opposite wall) between the PC and the 52” LCD TV will be 40-45 feet.

My questions are:

1. Is the distance too great to use a monitor cable without a booster/repeater?
2. For the 52” LCD TV connection, would it be better to use the Analog or DVI connection to the video card? I don’t know if one carries a long distance signal better than the other.
3. If I use the DVI connection, any concerns with using a cable that has a DVI connector at one end and using an HDMI connection at the 52” LCD TV rather than a cable with DVI connectors on both ends?
4. Any recommendations on the best source for long video cables of this type?
5. Any thoughts on the best way to set up the second keyboard/mouse combo?

Thanks very much for your help!

Mark

Southlake, Texas

Answer:

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Computer manufacturers (like HP, Dell, or Toshiba) build computers out of components. These components are made by other manufacturers, such as NVidia and ATI. A Dell computer will have a lot of the same parts as an HP or Toshiba computer (or any other manufacturer).

Yesterday a reader included me in a tech support request to his hardware manufacturer:

 I have an Xw9300 workstation with a Dual Core Opteron 875 2.2GHz.  I have checked the HP web site and not found anything obvious.  When I load Vista the OS does not recognize USB most USB devices. This is an upgrade installation.  I have been able to get a USB printer to work – but my Sony DVD DRXC 720UL-T drive will not work when connected via a USB port.  The fire-wire works fine.
This is making Vista unusable for this particular system.  I have pinged knowledgable HP resources and not been able to get anywhere with this.
Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Tech support replied:

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Question:

 Hi,

I have a Asus W1 notebook running Vista Ultimate. The notebook has a build in card reader (Ricoh SD/MMC ,shows as IDE / ATA ATAPI controller) . I found (signed) XP drivers for it, and they work ok, but there is one “funny” problem:

The card is only accessible as Administrator…. I can get there by running the command prompt as Administrator or turning UAC off… but not as an ordinary user…

After installing the XP driver there is an exclamation mark next to Portabale Devices > Microsoft WDP Filesystem Volume Driver, maybe it has something to with it?

–

best regards,

 Bert

Answer:

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Question:

Hi,

I just got finished building myself a new system…to bad for me that I didn’t think to look and see if Vista had a memory maximux. I purchased the full retail version of Vista Ultimate. My new system has 4GB of physical ram…Vista varys betwee bootups between 3.34 or 3.25 GB of ram. I, like many others see all the ram in bios but not in the OS. I have an Intel 975xbx2 MB, Core2 DUO@2.93Ghz /w 4MB L2, PCI-E Radeon x1950 Pro 256 MB and 2 other addin cards.

Here is my question…does it have any effect on the OS or at the hardware layer to run in this configuration?

Observation/Frustration…Why,in 2007…with the tecnology level that is available today…are we still forced to deal withe the same basic issues that we had since the 8088 processor. I’ve read alot of the other post and also HPs’ responce and it almost sounds as though its…physical ram(4 GB) minus address space of all addin cards equals Vista ram…am I wrong?

Charles

Answer:

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Last week, my fax machine died. I decided I’d buy the biggest and fanciest all-in-one fax/scanner/printer/copier that I could find, so I’d never be stranded without some feature. I wanted something that could connect directly to the network, so I could use all the features when I had my laptop disconnected from the docking station.

After reading through many reviews, I decided on the HP OfficeJet 7410 All-in-One. It sounded very cool–through software, I can scan and fax across the network. Staples had it on sale, so I ran to the nearest outlet. I was relieved to see a big cardboard sign on the printer that said, “Ready for Vista!” Sure, Vista was released about five months ago, but not every vendor has released updates for compatibility, so finding Vista compatibility was important.

So, I buy one and hook it up at home. I open up HP’s website to grab the latest drivers, and I see:

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Ever since I created this post about the real memory maximum in Windows (including Windows XP and Windows Vista, and any 32-bit version of Windows), I get A LOT of questions about it. I thought I’d take a minute to answer some of them:

Hello

I just wanted to find out why my asus board p5w-dh-d picks up 4gigs of memory in the bios but only 2gig in windows vista business 32bit

Thank you.

Answer: Read this post. That’s just the way it works. Sorry.

and (more after the jump)

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Question:

I have a weird one…

I installed Vista Enterprise on my HP Compaq tc4400 Tablet PC. For the most part, it went smooth as silk. When I brought the unit into my office and installed it in the Advanced Port Replicator on my desk, the Microsoft wireless mouse I have (Wireless Explorer 2.0) goes absolutely bonkers. The mouse pointer jumps all over the screen and actual mouse clicks happen randomly. My initial thought was that the wireless mouse was the issue, so I shut down and attached a wired mouse to the port replicator. Unfortunately – same issue.

The odd thing is that outside of the port replicator, a wireless mouse works fine. I have a wireless laser notebook mouse and there is no problem there. The port replicator is OK because it worked on Friday when I was running XP.

Any ideas?…Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks…

Answer:

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