Computer Repair How-To

Step by step computer guides, computer help, computer repair, and assistance. Follow these How-Tos to fix or speed up your computer.

Howto: Facebook Chat XMPP settings

Here are XMPP settings to connect to facebook chat with your favorite client. We recommend Pidgin, PSI, or Miranda IM.

Protocol: XMPP

Username: Your Facebook Vanity Name
Domain: chat.facebook.com
Jabber ID: vanityname@chat.facebook.com
Password: <Facebook password>

Connect port: 5222
Connect server: chat.facebook.com
Use SSL/TLS: no
Allow Plaintext Authentication: no

So if you are setting it up for Pidgin, your settings should look something like this:

If you are still having trouble, check out the official support page.

Saboteur ATI Freeze Fix

Saboteur game is suffering a freezing issue which affects most ATI users when opening menus and the quest journal, and transitioning between areas. Some ATI gamers are able to play using Windows XP, but even then there are often problems. Pandemic is investigating the problems in conjunction with ATI. Here’s a intermittently-working workaround:

UPDATE:

  • 12/18/09): Patch Released:

[Read more...]

Future of Torrents; DHT, PEX and Magnet Links Explained

Bittorrent Explained

This week The Pirate Bay confirmed it would shut down its tracker for good, instead encouraging the use of DHT, PEX and magnet links. This move confounded many BitTorrent enthusiasts, who although wishing to adapt, were confronted with hard to grasp terminology and technology. Time for some explaining. [Read more...]

Bypass Reduce Functionality Hack

brokenwin

Temporarily bypass Reduced Functionality to rescue your files and operating system capabilities and pave the way for a clean, genuine, windows install.

[Read more...]

Geek Squad Manuals

geeknoobsIf you’ve ever wondered just what costs $200/h when you hire Geek Squad, find out. These 11 manuals, which you should learn for yourself, are a source of Geek Squad expertise.

Check them out


[Read more...]

How To: View archived messages in Gmail

GmailTransparent1 No labels, no workarounds. Archived all your messages and want to view them in chronological order, from latest received?

A simple URL change is all you need!

[Read more...]

PeerGuardian PG alternative, ipfilter + utorrent, ipfilter.dat

utorrent ipfilter

Whether you are looking for an alternative to PG2 because it fails to function properly, or simply looking to cut down the number of processes you are running – the information here is for you.

It is possible to block ip-ranges with utorrent’s built in ipfiltering system.

[Read more...]

Slow torrents with Windows 7

torrent windows 7After getting windows 7 I noticed that my downloads of the Linux kernel through utorrent were running at incredibly slow speeds.

Though the reasons behind this may be complicated, the solution turned out to be rather simple.

[Read more...]

Overclocking laptop, Mobility Radeon

Studio 15 laptopNot only unsupported, Mobility Radeons are further crippled by their drivers. Laptop distributors (HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc) limit the clocks on the bundled video cards and restrict access to the GPU BIOS. There are a number of logical reasons behind this, namely warranty overheating issues.

There are a number of ways to work around these restrictions, the best likely being a BIOS mod, as it would allow fluent clock changing through ATT, or other programs. However, some GPUs have their BIOS read and write protected, making the process rather futile.

Another, simpler, method is using a specific driver version. 8.9 and 8.10 Catalysts allow you to overclock when used in conjunction with AMD GPU Clock Tool.

[Read more...]

Ati Tray Tools with Win7 64bit

Mobility Radeon As stated earlier, Windows 7 requires digitally signed drivers. This is a bummer if you want to run an awesome application like ATT rather than crappy CCC. The fix, as you may have guessed, relies on DSEO. Download it, run it, agree to prompts, enable TEST MODE, and reboot.

[Read more...]