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I think most monitors will burn out quickly at 180Hz. I haven't seen a monitor go that high before. CRT Monitors generally can run at higher frequencies (faster refresh rate) than LCD monitors. That's why gamers swear by their CRT monitors vs LCD monitors. The refresh rate setting is set by the video card, not the monitor. The video card makers had to make an upper limit, so they picked 180Hz because they figure within the next (pick a big number) years nobody will create a monitor with a refresh rate higher than 180Hz. (at least that's my guess)

The refesh rate is how often the monitor gets update. At 180Hz, your monitor updates 180 times every second. The responce time is how long it takes for the monitor to update the image after it is sent the update. It takes time for the crystals to change shape to produce a different color, in your case, it should take 8ms (8 thousandths of a second). A higher refresh rate is generally better, but if you set it too high and your monitor is not built to handle that refresh rate, it'll burn out. I'd suggest looking in the manual and seeing what the recommended refresh rate is for the resolution you are using (in your case, I would use the native resolution of the montor for most tasks). A higher resolution usually means you'll have to use a lower refresh rate, so at a lower resolution, you can use a higher refresh rate. I'd use the max of what the manual recommends, but no higher.

Most likely yes, but you might want to post the parts in it (ie cpu, video card, RAM, etc)

I just finished my APCS class yesterday when I presented my final project, yay! I'm still waiting on my AP exam score, which is going to be a 5. Easy test.

What's the CPU usage at when this happens? Is it at 100% the whole time when it's hung up? What speed is your CPU? Also, what programs are doing this, and what actions will do this? Give some examples.

It seems like you're running out of RAM to run your normal programs. Does your hard drive start thrashing when you're opening these programs? How much RAM is available when you're computer is running slow? (ctrl+alt+delete). I think your computer is running out of physical RAM, so it's using the hard drive as virtual memory, which is thousands of times slower than your physical RAM. You need to close more programs running in the background, or buy more RAM. That's my best guess, I would check the task manager and see how much RAM you have avaliable before jumping to conclusions.

I had to take off the keyboard, touchpad, the display/monitor, and a bunch of plastic (the case materials) to even GET to motherboard. (I upgraded it from a PIII to a P4 mobo). It was a PAIN. By the time I took out the motherboard, I had taken everything out of the plastic (and it was lying all over the table). It was a learning experience, I'll say. Not for rookies.

GHz and MHz are EXACTLY the SAME THING! Hz (hertz) is a unit of measurement. It represents cycles per second (1/seconds). G (giga) is 10^9 so 1GHz is 1,000,000,000 Hz M (mega) is 10^6 so 1Mhz is 1,000,000 Hz Therefore 1000Mhz equals 1 GHz. They are just different ways to represent the same unit of measurement.

Uh, you have that backwards. IEEE 802.11b/g (wireless b/g) routers use the 2.4Ghz band. Any cordless phones in that band may cause interference. I've never seen a 2GHz phone, I've only seen 2.4GHz phones. It's likely that the 2.4Ghz phones are causing interference, but not at all likely that a 900MHz phone will do that. It's not even CLOSE to being in the same band!

It would help if you could give us the make and model so we can give you more specific instructions. From my experience, Linksys routers can be accessed at the IP 192.168.1.1 (type that in IE or FireFox). It should ask for a username and password, the manual should have the default username and password. You should be able to configure it now. If it is a wireless router, you *must* to do the inital setup wired.

It definately sounds like you are having power issues. I don't think it's the batteries, it's most likely the power supply/board or whatever you call it. The only other thing that would make sence is the power switch is broken. Highly unlikely, but possible.

Well, is there ANY indication that something is powering on?

Does the computer have ANY indications that it is powering on? For example, monitor turns on for a second, a fan turns on, etc? If nothing turns on at all, my only thought is that the power board is busted (or whatever they call it on laptops). You can buy them on ebay pretty cheap. I remember looking for a new motherboard for my laptop months ago and seeing tons of power boards(?) for sale (for around $50 if I remember). I don't know if that's the problem, but it could be the case. It sounds weird to me, as well.

True, but that also assumes the author of the program actually wants to port it. I agree, programs have already been ported from PowerPC to x86 in HOURS (ex. Mathematica), and it shouldn't be a big deal. However, if you have an old program that you use all the time and it's been virtually abandoned, you're not going to be able to get an x86 version, even if it just involves a simple recompile.

Wow. Oh wow. Enough said.

Holy crap. You don't have to worry about spyware. You don't have to worry about viruses. You get an awesome and easy to use GUI. You get a dummy proof system. You get an EXTREMELY stable system. But yeah, you're right. I love dealing with Windows crashing. Computers that don't require hours a week to keep running are pretty "crappy", imo.

As long as it doesn't slow your computer down, it should be fine. I'm at 75% on a 1.5Ghz Pentium-M (about the same performance as a 2.4Ghz P4) If it's slowing you down, use the low detail client, that should speed things up a bit.

That's normal. The jump from 1-2% to 38% means that your processor was only using 1-2% of it's potential, and then [bleep]ed up to 38% of it's potential. It's only bad if your computer is running at 100% ALL of the time. Usually that will accompany slow response time, since your processor is being given too many tasks, so your computer will usually come to a halt (or run REALLY slow). As for the RAM, you're using about half of it. You wouldn't get ANY performance increase with more RAM. It would end up being a waste of money.

Total is how much RAM your computer has, Available is how much RAM you have left. If you have relatively low amount of available left, (50,000 or around there), you've used most of it up. If it's 100,000 or more, you're golden. Also, if the System Cache is REALLY high (more than the available RAM, or very close), you could also benefit from some more RAM.

I know this is semi-old news, but what are people's thoughts about this? For those who are not familiar: Apple has made an agreement with Intel to start using their x86 chips. Currently they are using PowerPC processsors. This is a big change, since programs made for PowerPCs will not run on x86's without emulation, which greatly reduces performance. This change will take place over the next two years. My thoughts? I'm personally in favor of the change. Although I will agree that the x86 architecture is old and could use a total overhaul, this should create some healty competition. Since programs will more easily ported from Windows to Mac now, more programs will be available for Macs. I believe this will help increase the sales of Macs (in my opinion, MacOS X is far surperior to Winblows), which will in turn force Microsoft to work harder to make Windows a more competitive product. At this point, it seems Microsoft doesn't care if their product sucks, because people are still buying it. If more people start to think "Hey, you can run Mac OSX on an Intel!", Microsoft will have to work harder for their customers. I'm hoping this in turn will help encourage Microsoft to improve their Windows product. I firmly believe that the majority of consumers stay away from Macs because they run unfamiliar hardware. If you make the hardware the same, consumers will be less afraid of the change. I know this sounds silly, but it's the truth. Most people probabbly don't know what a PowerPC is, and most people won't buy stuff that they're unfamiliar with. However, I'm sure everybody knows what "Intel" and "Pentium" are. Overall, I think this is a good move that will increase the sales of Macs and create some competion for Microsoft. Just my 2 cents.

You *might* be able to put a GB of RAM in your computer, if your motherboard supports it. You most likely won't gain from it, though. If you still have available RAM when you're doing your normal day to day tasks (you can check that in the task manager by pressing ctl+alt+del), it's almost certain you won't gain from additional RAM. 512MB of laptop RAM runs at about $80-100. If you have both So-DIMM slots full (two 256MB So-DIMMS), it'll end up costing you $160-200, which could be the case. It's most likely not worth it.

Sure it's *possible*. I've upgraded my video card and CPU on my laptop before. It's just a pain in the butt and expensive.

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I used dialup and just recently switched to DSL, I noticed NO DIFFERENCE at all in RS I never said anything about gameplay speeds, RuneScape uses relatively low bandwidth, correct? His problem was the client takes a LONG time to load. But you're right, it shouldn't make a difference once the client is loaded.

It's really this simple: You're using dialup. Dialup has very little bandwidth, creating slow download speeds. RuneScape is a relatively huge client, so it's going to naturally take a long time to download it. Use the low detail client. (it's going to be a smaller download). The only other fix is to get broadband. Sorry :(