Hardware

Infopackets Reader John R. writes: " Dear Dennis, Have you heard anything about those CD / DVD ROM disc + brush cleaners causing damage to the drives? Someone told me this a long time ago and I've never cleaned my burner since. I was in Circuit City ... the other day, and the rep told me he uses his all the time to clean his burner. What do you think? " My response: I honestly don't have any statistics on this matter or a definitive answer, but I personally would avoid using any abrasive surface on an optical lens (such as the disc + brush combo). The lens is a glass-like surface and ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Frank K. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've taken all of my photos and scanned them into the computer. I later decided to record the photos to CD so that I could archive them permanently and view them at my leisure. A friend of mine told ... me that my home DVD player can also play image files, much like a 'photo CD'. The problem is that the photo CD that I made only plays some of the image files. Can you tell me why this is so, and how I can go about correcting the problem? " My response: Most DVD players can play only play .JPG (or 'JPEG') image files. Image files come in ... (view more)

Recall - - Last week I talked about a utility called ISOBuster, which is able to retrieve data from stubborn DVD and CDs. Unfortunately I wasn't 100% correct when I reported that ISOBuster is freeware. To better explain ISOBuster's 'freeware' ... functionality, the author of ISOBuster (Peter Van Hove) emailed me the following message: " Dear Dennis, I saw in today's newsletter that you mentioned ISOBuster which is GREAT! And you're right, ISOBuster is ideal for data recovery from CD and DVD -- especially for getting data back from CDs created with DirectCD, Drag 2 Disc, InCD, DLA and other ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Nick F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been an avid reader of your newsletter for quite some time. My question for you is with respect to a recent article that dealt with problems reading DirectCD discs. The same circumstances ... described in this article reminded me of a problem I had a while ago when I backed up some files onto a CD-RW disc prior to formatting my system. After Windows was reinstalled and we reloaded all the important software again, I found that I could not open the CD-RW disc -- even using the same program, same disc drive, that had written it. Every time ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joseph R. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'd like to upgrade my computer and was contemplating which main board I should choose. I noticed one particular solution which sported an integrated nVidia MX 4 64MB video chipset; another main ... board I was looking at did not have the integrated video built in, which meant that I would most likely opt to purchase an nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB video card separately. I've read that some integrated video cards actually 'steal' memory from the main board of the computer. So, for example: if your computer system has 512MB RAM of system ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Len M. writes: " Dear Dennis, Can you tell me what AMD mobile processor compares to the mobile Celeron 2.8, or where I can find a comparison chart? I am not used to working with Celerons and have just bought a used Toshiba ... Satellite Laptop-SA35-S1593 and it seems slow. It was new in January of 2004 from CompUSA. My online searches show AMD Athlon 3200 running at 2400, the Celeron runs at 2800? The Celeron laptop should be quite quick then?! " My response: First, note that some notebooks will run at 1/2 their speed (also called "speed stepping") if you ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Joel T. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thank you for the wonderfully helpful articles on VCR to DVD / CD transfers [ article 1 / article 2 ], but I am still left with one point of confusion. I had read so much about using a Firewire port ... to stream video to the PC, that I ordered a Firewire port with my new computer. I did not, however, specifically order a video capture card (I got a Dell with an Nvidia 6800 GTO card). Does this mean that the Firewire port on my new PC is not adequate for streaming video from a VCR or video camera? Am I still short a special capture card? ... (view more)

Continuing on from our previous discussions with regard to converting VHS video and archiving to DVD or CD, Infopackets Reader Jim L. wrote in with the proceeding follow-up question: " Dear Dennis, First, in reference to the program 'DVDSqueeze' ... that I spoke of previously: now that I think about it, I believe the program was linked from your newsletter through the Google ads. I didn't see the ad in January 20th's newsletter [regarding the conversion of 8MM film to DVD / CD ]; however, I did read the comments you recently made concerning Movie Shrink and Burn (MSaB). Although MSaB sounds ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Barbo214' writes: " Dear Dennis, I don't know how to explain the noise that comes from my computer speakers -- but it almost like wires are trying to connect. I've heard the same sound sometimes from my car radio speakers. Do you ... know what could be causing this and how I can resolve the issue? " My response: I'm not quite sure what sound you are referring to, but if it's a constant buzz (like feedback in a microphone), it's probably because your computer speakers aren't plugged in all the way in the back of your computer. If this is the case, make sure it's ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Han L. from Denmark writes: " Dear Dennis, First of all, thank you for an extremely informative newsletter. I just finished reading yesterday's issue of the Gazette and have a related question about converting VHS video to DVD or ... CD format. Could you possibly enlighten me on how to convert my old 8MM film productions into digital format (such as DVD or CD)? " My response: I get asked this question frequently. I don't own an 8MM film projector, so I can only speculate on how to go about doing this. Basically: in order to convert the 8MM film, you'll need a way to ... (view more)