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Non-existent CD drive cannot be removed

Daemon tools is a stand-alone application that allows DVD isos (amongst other things) to be mounted on "phantom" drives. Before I got my DVD drives I used to use it to mount DVD's. Now that I have them, I've disabled the virtual drives and just keep Daemon around for occasional mounting of isos.
- Phantom1983
- Post #5
- Jan 23, 2006
- Forum: Operating Systems
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Non-existent CD drive cannot be removed

Thanks for the tip. I found the following line: Found "GenCdRom" in C:\WINDOWS\inf\cdrom.inf; Device: "CD-ROM Drive"; Driver: "CD-ROM Drive"; Provider: "Microsoft"; Mfg: "(Standard CD-ROM drives)"; Seems like a device is being conjured out of nowhere. Disabled, the drive doesn't appear in...
- Phantom1983
- Post #3
- Jan 23, 2006
- Forum: Operating Systems
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Non-existent CD drive cannot be removed

In my device manager I have a CD drive listed that does not physically exist and I don't know where it has come from. At first I thought it was a mounting drive for Daemon tools, but I've checked and it isn't. When I try to uninstall this drive it just comes back again when I restart windows...
- Phantom1983
- Thread
- Jan 23, 2006
- Replies: 5
- Forum: Operating Systems
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Catalyst Control Center is a slow piece of CRAP!

Personally, I can't see why ATI are making CCC the monopoly. They can't possibly be making more money from it than CP (the drivers are free, for god's sake). In fact, I suspect CCC is more expensive to implement than CP, what with all the fancy videos and shiny menus. All ATI are doing is...
- Phantom1983
- Post #6
- Jan 21, 2006
- Forum: Graphics Cards
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Quick question about ATI Tray Tools

Since ATI have seen fit to dispense with the wonderful control panel that accompanied their drivers, I've had to resort to using ATI Tray Tools with "plain" driver updates, as there is no way in hell I'll propitiate the CCC by using it. My question is: in the CP there exists the option of...
- Phantom1983
- Thread
- Jan 21, 2006
- Replies: 1
- Forum: Graphics Cards
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Can a pen drive be erased by a mobile phone?

They got it from ebuyer, who are outstanding IMO, for £12 (about $20.50 these days). I'll admit that this is inordinately cheap for a 256, but projects have limited budgets. Ah well...
- Phantom1983
- Post #7
- Jan 21, 2006
- Forum: Peripherals & Components
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Can a pen drive be erased by a mobile phone?

MECHANICAL engineering, I should have added!
- Phantom1983
- Post #3
- Jan 20, 2006
- Forum: Peripherals & Components
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Can a pen drive be erased by a mobile phone?

As an aid to my Final Year Project at university I was given a 256MB pen drive by the School of Engineering. It was kept on my car keys since I bought it, 3 months ago, in the same pocket as my mobile phone. A coupe of days ago I plugged the drive in and the PC asked me to format it. After...
- Phantom1983
- Thread
- Jan 20, 2006
- Replies: 7
- Forum: Peripherals & Components
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A couple of posers...

The answer I most frequently received is that the microwaves eventually migrate back to the magnetron when no water is present to absorb their energy. The opening for the magnetron is the only real gap in the microwave's interior (microwaves will bounce off the walls, floor and door) so the...
- Phantom1983
- Post #13
- Jan 11, 2006
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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A couple of posers...

By far the funniest "microwave curiosity" is a bar of soap. Just put it in, nothing else needed. I first saw this on TV and could not believe it. I won't spoil it but it isn't very dangerous at all.
- Phantom1983
- Post #3
- Jan 9, 2006
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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A couple of posers...

I was asked these by a venerable old secondary school teacher of mine. They sound like modern day Zen "empty your mind" problems to me... 1. Why are things not upside down when seen in a mirror? What is so special about the up-down direction? 2. Why do microwaves carry the warning "do not...
- Phantom1983
- Thread
- Jan 9, 2006
- Replies: 14
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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CAN you go faster than light? A thought experiment...

Yes, I think I catch your drift. A black hole's escape velocity is equal to c but I can't for the life of me see why a body can't be made even MORE dense so that its escape velocity is greater than c. Then you could just throw a tennis ball at it (which might travel back in time for all we...
- Phantom1983
- Post #5
- Jan 9, 2006
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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CAN you go faster than light? A thought experiment...

Very possibly! "Distortion of space" essentially means that the geodesics (shortest paths between two given points) become curves rather than straight lines. A particle moving at a fixed speed right-to-left along the curve xy=1 will appear, if you are the y-axis, to approach you with an ever...
- Phantom1983
- Post #4
- Jan 9, 2006
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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CAN you go faster than light? A thought experiment...

To any astrophysicists out there: a little thought experiment. Consider a large massive body (a Schwarzchild-type black hole would work best) and a spaceship, positioned a great distance away, which is set gently into motion (or shoved violently; it makes no odds) towards the black hole...
- Phantom1983
- Thread
- Jan 9, 2006
- Replies: 23
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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Do we move through time,does time pass us by

Fair point! What I should have said was "why don't we have definitive knowledge of the future the way we do of the past?"
- Phantom1983
- Post #31
- Jan 9, 2006
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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9800pro cooler very noisy - Vantec Iceberq?

The stock cooler on my 9800pro is extremely loud and annoying while the PC is booting up but, mysteriously, becomes quiet again once booting is complete. Since my father uses the PC in the mornings before he goes to work (07:30) and my room is within 10 feet of it, I'm looking at replacing the...
- Phantom1983
- Thread
- Jan 8, 2006
- Replies: 4
- Forum: Graphics Cards
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Can someone explain black holes to me please?

Black holes have recently been re-interpreted in a string theory context. The details are highly technical but it's easily rephrased in "our" language: Space is now thought to consist of three "extended" dimensions (the ones we can experience) and six or seven (depending on which theory is...
- Phantom1983
- Post #18
- Jan 6, 2006
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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Do we move through time,does time pass us by

There's no such thing as "at rest"; you will ALWAYS be moving relative to something. If you were "at rest", though, all of your space-time velocity vector would lie on the time axis and the result of THAT would be... well, answers on a postcard. Thankfully, it can never happen. Time has been...
- Phantom1983
- Post #16
- Jan 5, 2006
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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WOW, removing a dust filter made temps go down about 6 C!

Is there anyone out there who actually knows what sort of airflow reduction (proportionallly speaking) a filter would cause? Personally, I would compensate by just using a slightly larger fan (I'd guess a filtered 120 would give about the same airflow as a free 92), since cleaning dust out...
- Phantom1983
- Post #18
- Jan 4, 2006
- Forum: Cases & Cooling
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WOW, removing a dust filter made temps go down about 6 C!

Compressed air (by which I mean from a tool compressor; the canned stuff is totally pointless) is by far the best way, as there's no danger of dislodging anything by accidentally smacking it with a hoover attachment. Have a hoover waiting, though, to suck all the dust up.
- Phantom1983
- Post #16
- Jan 3, 2006
- Forum: Cases & Cooling
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Whats the best Nforce 2 Motherboard

I have also kept my Socket A setup and by far the best board is the Abit NF7 v2.0, which I have. The FSB can go the full 400MHz and it's a great board for overclocking (an XP3200+ will run rock solid at 2.4GHz, from 2.2GHz). I have had absolutely no stability problems whatsoever in my 12+months...
- Phantom1983
- Post #3
- Jan 2, 2006
- Forum: Motherboards
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Can Speedfan adjust the Chipset Fan RPM

Well, I own an Abit NF7 2.0 and the chipset fan screams like an animal in pain for the first 60 seconds of booting, then mysteriously shuts up once HDD activity idles. I would recommend a silent chipset cooler which, as long as there is plenty of case ventilation, should do fine. Sadly, in my...
- Phantom1983
- Post #5
- Dec 31, 2005
- Forum: Motherboards
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Changing mobo, want to keep existing HDD

A while back I upgraded to an Abit NF7 v2.0 from some dreadful ECS (a K7S5A, I think). Anyway, I put my old HDD in it wouldn't boot. I ended up having to blank it off and re-install everything. I absolutely DESPISE doing this (I'd rather build houses of cards while listening to opera) so...
- Phantom1983
- Thread
- Dec 29, 2005
- Replies: 1
- Forum: Motherboards
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Void in space?

This is a very interesting question and is much deeper than first appears. Looking between stars gives fairly empty space (there's some interstellar dust etc), looking between galaxies gives even emptier space and looking between galactic superclusters gives the emptiest space. However, space...
- Phantom1983
- Post #5
- Dec 29, 2005
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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Whats an atom?

It's true to say that quarks don't really have a concept of "size" associated with them. It's also true that quarks can't exist as single entities as they have a "strong charge" which must add up to "white". Basically, a hadron (proton, neutron etc) has three quarks which are "coloured" red...
- Phantom1983
- Post #9
- Dec 29, 2005
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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ATi's classic Control Panel

I agree wholeheartedly. I simply can't see why ATI would produce a vast, bloated, memory-devouring app which offers NO extra functionality with respect to what it is replacing. The CP is a beautifully compact program using almost no resources and accomplishing exactly the same goals. I'm...
- Phantom1983
- Post #22
- Dec 28, 2005
- Forum: Graphics Cards
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ATi's classic Control Panel

Agreed. The ATI tray tools is very nicely interfaced and occupies virtually no resources. I'd use it but for one slight issue: I can't find a way to have different gamma profiles for desktop and FS3D. Is there a way to do this? If so, I'll ditch CP this instant. Cheers, M.
- Phantom1983
- Post #21
- Dec 28, 2005
- Forum: Graphics Cards

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