Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 March 19

= March 19 =

Formatting
Does frequently formatting our system to install the OS in the same drive slows down our system???? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.235.54.67 (talk) 13:25, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * No. If anything, it speeds it up because you frequently get rid of all the garbage that gets needlessly installed on the system. --  k a i n a w &trade; 13:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * But if you have a modern OS (such as Windows 7) and do not install a lot of unnecessary software on it (or misuse it in any other way), you should actually "never" need to do this. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:27, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Google Chrome
A couple of weeks ago I decided to download Google Chrome to try it, and I generally like it a lot (fast, etc.). However, on occasion, when I click on a link on a webpage, the new page will refuse to load. It seems to happen quite a bit when I'm on Wikipedia, but maybe that's just because I click on a lot of links here. Anyway, usually it's not too bad, because I just exit out of the tab, open a new one, and return to the page I was at. Sometimes, however, it will refuse to load for a couple seconds, and then my entire computor will slow to a crawl; can't switch tabs, can't exit out, nothing. It takes about 20 minutes or so to try to close the window. Why might this be happening, and what can I do about it? I'm running Windows 7 on an ASUS laptop. I also have internet explorer (which is what I used before I got chrome); could that be interfering somehow? I like Chrome's speed a lot, so I don't really want to go back to Internet Explorer (or get firefox, as I'm sure you guys will recomment), but if I can't trust my browser to load consistantly, I might have to. Buddy431 (talk) 16:12, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I've not experienced this myself, but your "refuse ... for a couple of seconds" might suggest that you're running out of RAM (and having to swap). Chrome uses a process per tab (for some very good reasons) which results in generally rather higher memory usage (see for example this analysis). If your laptop doesn't have a lot of memory, or if you've also got a bunch of other stuff running too, then Chrome's rather aggressive memory usage might result in it having to swap some of those processes in and out of swap. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:29, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * It's unlikely Internet Explorer is responsible.—Machine Elf 1735 (talk) 17:43, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't know how Chrome renders pages, but sometimes with browsers, any one web page requires a browser to load up lots of other pages as well (Javascript, stylesheets, ads, etc.), and in some cases, if one of those pages won't load (or loads slowly), it can slow the total rendering of the page down considerably. One way to see if that's the case it to install something like NoScript that bans all Javascript and see if the problem is replicated; if not, it is probably due to so sort of background Javascript that isn't loading right. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:23, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Stop Excel Horizontal-scrolling in a document
Excel is being very very annoying in one document. Any other document i own will scroll up/down the page as I roll the scroll-wheel, but this one particularly document refuses to - it always scrolls 'left-right' whenever I roll the scroll-wheel. It's very odd, if i open a new doc it'll do up/down. Any ideas on how to 'reset' it back to up/down for the doc i'm having the trouble with? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 16:31, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * In case nobody else responds to this query: I did a little googling and found some requests from people who want this behavior in their spreadsheets, and the only responses I saw were very convoluted responses involving triggering a macro upon moving the scroll wheel.  There may not be a simple "on/off" switch to cause this behavior.  To the original poster:  I would first try contacting the author of this document; if I couldn't reach that person, I would try disabling macros on this document.  What platform and version of Excel are you using?  Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:39, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

ISO Files
I have an ISO file. I burned it to a DVD and all that happened was that the ISO was copied across to the DVD. The DVD didn't carry the image that the ISO file has: I just had the ISO file on the DVD. Any ideas? •• Fly by Night (talk) 18:33, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * You used your burning software's "create a data disc" option with the contents being the .iso file. What burning software did you use?  It probably has a menu or button option that says something like "Burn image to disc".  The burning software may also "know what you want to do" if you simply double-click the .iso file to launch the burning software.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:38, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * (ec)You just copied your file to the DVD; you need to use your DVD burner software's "burn an ISO" or "burn an image" option. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:39, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks chaps! You guys are right. I found an option "Copy a CD/DVD". That seems to have worked... •• Fly by Night (talk) 19:43, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

.mdf and .mds files
I'm trying to download an expansion patch for a game. But the download only contains two files: a .mdf file and a .mds file. What the heck are these? I did a search for .mdf and .mds files on my computer and only found one shortcut to a .mdf file sat in a roaming folder. I am really confused. The worst thing is that the original game was published in 2000 so no support exists and all of the forums dried up long ago. •• Fly by Night (talk) 19:52, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * .mdf → Alcohol 120% ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:01, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Could you please give more details? •• Fly by Night (talk) 20:44, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * What game is it? Each developer makes their patches differently.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:08, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * The original game is Zeus: Master of Olympus and the patch is Poseidon: Master of Atlantis. •• Fly by Night (talk) 20:44, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * These files, as a pair, form a disk image, similar to a .iso file. Programs like Alcohol 120% and Daemon Tools (both are available in free versions) can be used to create a virtual disk drive and mount either the .mdf or .mds (I can't remember which).  Since they operate as a pair, you have to keep them in the same directory.  You can also burn the image to a physical disk if you wish. &mdash;Akrabbimtalk 21:10, 19 March 2010 (UTC)