Frequently Asked Questions
Most Recently Added
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Welcome to our frequently asked questions section. You should be able to
find a lot of useful information to diagnose a number of problems. This area
is constantly updated with information. The information presented here is a
collection of problems that our technical department has experienced while
setting up new computers, or servicing our customer's computers. Any input
that you can provide to this page will be greatly appreciated both by us,
and by other fellow customers, all customers will be given credit for any
problems and solutions that they submit to us, so in other words this area
of the website was created for customers and by customers. If you have any
information to contribute to this website please e-mail us at
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| Date:4/26/2007 5:55:54 PM | I have a problem with my Viewsonic monitor, what do I do?
| | You must contact Viewsonic for customer support on all problems requiring warranty service. They can be reached at 1-800-688-6688. If the item is less then seven (7) days old, from the date of purchase (in the case of an internet order, the date you signed for the item), you may return the item for warranty to our store, however beyond this period of time Viewsonic is the sole provider of any and all support on the item. | | Author: richard@pccanada.com |
| Date:8/25/2006 12:51:12 PM | My new AMD AM2 based system is unstable and refuses to function correctly with my DDR2 memory, what can I do?
| | Many DDR2 memory modules will not be stable when run at the default 1.8V reference voltage. You may need to edit the memory configuration in the BIOS in order to operate your computer system.
If you install only one module, the system should be stable enough to enter the BIOS and alter the configurations. Please consult your motherboard user manual for instructions on how to enter the BIOS and which section of the menus the memory reference voltage is located.
In testing, we have found that almost every AM2 system with stability issues is fixed when the memory is run at 2.0V. Some motherboard may only allow up to 1.95V configuration, if your particular motherboard is limited in this way, please test it at 1.95V.
You can confirm that the memory is running correctly by downloading and testing with Goldmemory diagnostics, which you can download here | | Author: richard@pccanada.com |
| Date:8/22/2006 5:04:54 PM | I only have one SLI capable video card in my system, but the Nvidia drivers keep saying it is disabling SLI functions, how do I fix this?
| | If you edit the registry and alter the following:
Location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\MediaCenterTray
Key: (DWord)
NvCplDisableBalloonNotifications = 00000001
The drivers will no longer popup the message regarding SLI being disabled.
You can also download a registry fix here. | | Author: richard@pccanada.com |
| Date:2/10/2006 7:02:23 PM | I have a one for the following Maxtor SATA hard drives and an nForce motherboard and I am having issues installing Windows;
6V- (DiamondMax 10)
6H- (DiamondMax 11)
7V- (Maxline III)
7H- (MaxLine Pro 500)
| | You must have firmware version va111630 on your Maxtor hard drive for this to function properly. If you do not, a firmware upgrade to resolve these issues for Maxtor SATA II drives is available here. | | Author: tech@pccanada.com |
| Date:1/19/2006 9:55:15 AM | I recently purchased an ECS 760-GX bundled with an AMD XP-M 2800+ CPU, but when I view the CPU settings within windows or other testing software, It is reported as running at 800MHz, not 1600MHz which AMD indicates as the correct speed. How do I fix this?
| | This motherboard/CPU combination contains an AMD Athlon64 Mobile processor. Because this motherboard is not a mobile unit (i.e. a notebook), it lacks the CPU controls to alter the performance characteristics on demand. When used in a mobile soloution, the computer will allow the CPU to be set to a lower performance level to enhance battery life and lower system temperature.
In order to gain the full performance of the CPU, this motherboard requires manual configuration of the clock multiplier and CPU voltage reference. You will need to enter the BIOS configuration by pressing the <DEL> key at boot time. Once in the BIOS configuration menu, select the Power Management menu item. When you have chosen this menu item, please set the following:
| FID Control | x8 1600MHz |
| VID Control | 1.125V |
These settings have been tested by the technical staff at Premier Computer Canada, and have provided stable operation. However, due to differences in manufacturing processes and batch yields, these settings may not be appropriate for all systems. If you are experiencing stability problems, you may either increase the VID Control one or two steps more voltage, or contact Premier Computer Canada for further assistance.
| | Author: richard@pccanada.com |
| Date:12/22/2005 6:11:17 PM | I just installed a new SATA hard drive and the BIOS does not recognize the drive or reports errors when initializing the hardware.
| | Your new hard drive may be SATA2, which is usualy identified as being a 300 MBPS transfer rate, and an older SATA1 controller. Most of the SATA2 hard drive contain a configuration jumper which will drop the drive into SATA1 mode (150 MBPS data rate).
Seagate Configuration help
Western Digital configuration
Samsung configuration
Maxtor drives have a jumper configuration guide on the top label. | | Author: tech@pccanada.com |
| Date:5/16/2005 2:28:40 PM | I recently had a spyware/adware appliction on my computer and now
I can''t change the desktop wallpaper or the screensaver anymore as the
tabs for these options are missing. How do I get them back?
| | After removing the spyware, double check that everything is gone by
scanning with another application. When you are sure its clean, start the registry editor (click on the start button, click on the run
button, and type "regedit" in the entry field)
Go to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
If there is a DWoRD Value such "NoDispScrSavPage" with a data value of 1 this will disable the screen saver tab. Change the value to 0 or delete it to see the tab again. There will most likely be several
items here as Microsoft provides this feature for schools and business to disable these features so that no one can change the system settings without authorization. The spyware application does this to show you the spyware wallpaper. Remove all the NoDisp... entries, there will be several, as well as the wallpaper setting and style. You should now reboot, and the missing tabs should be back where they
belong. | | Author: richard@pccanada.com |
| Date:1/19/2005 2:55:50 PM | Media Center loads without a problem, Audio is all configured and plays
great, I can load DVD''s with 3rd Party software, BUT when I go to play DVD
with MCE DVD Player it says Codec''s are not loaded I did a DXDIAG and I got
NO Errors at all. DVD''s play flawlessly on 3rd party but would like to get
full benefit from MCE 2005. what can I do to make this setup work?
| | Windows MCE 2005 doesn''t ship with MCE compatible MPEG2 decoders. Third
party software may use its own MPEG2 decoders that aren''t MCE 2005
compatible - so they''ll play back DVDs fine within their own software, but
won''t allow DVD (or Live TV) within MCE 2005.
Solution is to install an MPEG2 decoder that IS MCE 2005 compliant. NVidia,
Intervideo and others all provide them.
There is a utility on the Microsoft site (DECCHECK.EXE I think it is
called - MPEG2 decoder check utility) which allows you to see how many
MPEG2 decoders you have installed, whether they are MCE compatible or not,
and also allows you to select the default decoder used by Windows. | | Author: winston@pccanada.com |
| Date:9/28/2004 7:26:19 PM | I just installed Microsoft Service Pack 2 for Windows XP on my new Pentium 4 computer, and now it locks up when starting windows, what can I do?
| | In most cases this system lock up is part of the internal security updates from Microsoft and conflict with the microcode in the Pentium 4 Prescott, and Celeron D processors. Certain combinations of CPU, Motherboard, and BIOS revisions will result in the system locking up after the SP2 has been installed. The easiest fix is to upgrade the BIOS firmware in the computer to the latest revision from your motherboard''s manufacture.
The second, and more involved method is to disable all L1 and L2 cache in the BIOS of your motherboard (please note, this will make your system **EXTREMELY** slow). It should boot, eventualy, and from there you can download and install the official Microsoft fix found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b99c199-5d75-454f-ae07-b620727be8d8&DisplayLang=en
If this does not fix the problem you may need to downgrade the c:\windows\system32\drivers\update.sys file to the SP1 or to the original file. In order to do this, you will need either a second system to mount the drive in temporarily or a means of reading NTFS while in DOS. You will also need a copy of the update.sys file. Once you have access to the hard drive, simply copy the old version of the file over top of the updated one, and your system should now boot into windows without any further problems. More information available at: http://cquirke.mvps.org/sp2intel.htm | | Author: richard@pccanada.com |
| Date:9/4/2004 1:34:49 PM | Which CPUs does my ECS board support?
| | A list of boards and the CPU''s they support can be found here. | | Author: PCCANADA |
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