How To Format a PS1 Memory Card With a PS2 Console

If you are using your PS2 console to play PS1 games, you may want to save your progress made in certain games onto a PlayStation memory card. This is so next time when you want to continue playing the same game, you can resume to the progress you made earlier on. To create save data using PS1 games, a PS1 memory card is required. This is because PS1 games have been developed to specifically only work with PS1 1 MB memory cards. A PS2 8 MB memory card will not work because it is only capability with PS2 games. If you are having trouble getting your trusty old PS1 memory card to work and it keeps giving copying errors, or saying corrupted data, you will need to format. What formatting does is wipes all the current save blocks from its memory capacity and gives it a fresh start.

1) Press the 'Eject' button on your PS2 console and remove the game disc. This will prevent the game from loading, which will allow the browser screen to come up. Ensure that your PS1 memory card that you want to reformat is inserted into a available memory card slot. Then press the 'Power/Reset' button to switch on the console.

2) On your television you will see two options on screen, 'Browser' and 'System Configuration'. The option that you want to select is 'Browser', so press 'X' on the dualshock 2 controller to enter into it.

3) You will see a small 'PS1 Memory Card Icon' appear onscreen, press the 'X' button on the dualshock 2 controller to enter into it. Find the 'Format' option from the list and press 'X' to proceed. When the format is completed, you will be notified onscreen.

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How To Change Nokia 6300 Front Cover / Housing / Fascia

Overtime, the condition of your Nokia 6300 will become worn out and scratched, due to constant use on a daily basis. This can make the front fascia of the mobile phone look unappealing. You can refurbish your own Nokia 6300 to look brand new once again, by changing the front cover. They come in five different colors silver, black, white, gold or red. When you purchase a replacement front cover, make sure that is genuine OEM made from Nokia. Don't get cheap copies because the build quality on them is really poor, the screen lens cracks easily and the color will fade off them very quickly.

1) Locating the two torx screws. Turn the phone upside down and remove the battery lid, by pushing it downwards. Don't remove the battery or the sim card that is inserted into it because it is not necessary. You will see two small torx screws in each corner at the bottom of the mobile phone. These screws are holding the front housing in place, what you need to do is now remove them.

2) Removing the two torx screws. You will require a torx '6' screwdriver to remove both screws. Don't try removing them will are regular Philips head screwdriver because you will damage the shape of the screws. Using your torx '6' screwdriver, remove both torx screws from the mobile phone. When you have removed the screws, place them into a small container so they don't get misplaced.

3) Removing the old front cover. Turn the phone the other way round and use your finger nail and run it all way around the joints of the cover. This will tear the glue that is holding it firmly down. Then grip the cover from the top and lift it upwards to remove it.

4) Fitting the new front cover. Remove the screen protector film from your new Nokia 6300 cover and remove the keypad from the old cover. Insert the keypad into the new cover and line up the front cover correctly onto the mobile phone and press it down. Turn the phone upside down, replace the two torx screws you removed earlier on and reattach the battery cover.

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How To Make Gran Turismo 5 Load Faster / Reduce Long & Slow Loading Times

Gran Turismo 5 is currently the best racing simulator out there for the PlayStation 3 platform, i cant wait for Gran Turismo 6! It has incredible detailed graphics and also has cockpit view, so you can real feel that realistic driving experience. It also supports high end steering wheels like the Logitech G25 & G27, which comes with a clutch pedal, shifter paddles and a functional gear shifter, that the Xbox 360 doesn't have. It also has over 1000 cars to choose from to race on the tracks, in fact more than Forza Motorsport can put together. 

Thanks to all the effort PolyPhony Digital have put into developing this racing game, the PS3 blueray game disc contains lots of different files of tracks and cars. This creates slow and boring loading times between loading races, which can become a frustrating experience for use gamers. The reason why the loading times is really slow for that particular game is because the laser inside the disc drive has to keep accessing the disc to keep up with constant system demands. This is a much slower process to retrieving data for a game, if compared to accessing data stored on an internal hard drive. Although PolyPhony Digital can't do much by releasing a game update to speed things up, i have some alternative solutions that will really help with reducing long loading times.

1) Install the game directly onto the hard drive thats inside your PS3 console. This will allow Gran Tursimo 5 tracks & cars data to be stored onto the hard drive. So the PlayStation 3 will instead read that data from the HDD and will no longer use the disc all the time, making loading times faster. The game will have an option which will specifically allow you to install GT5 to the hard drive. You will require at least 6.4GB of free space and will take around 40 minutes to complete the installation. If you don't have that much free space currently available, i suggest you delete some of you unwanted files or upgrade to a larger one. After all it is worth it!

2) Upgrade the standard hard drive to a faster SSD drive. SSD stands for solid state drive, which uses chips instead of a disk to store data onto. This will result in data to be retrieved much more faster, if compared to a regular HDD. From the factory, the Sony PS3 is installed with a standard HDD drive, the technology for that is kinda old and outdated. So you can swap out your current hard drive in your PlayStation 3 console, with a SSD with the same capacity, but the only downfall would be that it will cost three times as much as a standard HDD.

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How To Move & Transfer Xbox Live Profile To a USB Stick

When you create an Xbox Live profile on your Xbox 360 console, it will save all of its contents onto the capacity of the attached hard drive. This is so your profile is saved onto the console, so you can continue to use it, without having to create it again. If you want to use the same gamer profile on a different Xbox 360 console, you can transfer it quite easily, without having to download it. Making this method perfect if your console is not connected onto the internet and is offline. To make this work, you will need to move the Xbox Live profile from your current Xbox 360 onto a USB memory stick. Once you have done that, you can then retrieve it on the second Xbox 360 console. Any USB memory stick will work, it doesn't have to be the official Sandisk Microsoft one, as long as it got around 100mb of free space on-board, you will have no problems.

1) Switch on your Xbox 360 console, by pressing down the circle shaped 'Power Button'. Then press the 'Dashboard' button on the controller to connect it to the console.

2) There will two 'USB' ports found on the front of the console. You will not see them because there is a 'Plastic Flap' that covers them up, to prevent dust getting into them. So 'Push' down the plastic flap and insert your 'USB Memory Stick' into any of the two USB ports. Once inserted, if your USB memory stick has a 'LED' light, it will light up to confirm that it is connected and is active.

3) Then from the Dashboard, go to 'Settings' > 'Storage' > 'All Devices' > 'Gamer Profiles'.

4) You will see all the gamer profiles that are saved onto the hard drive. Select the one that you want to move onto the USB stick. Then select the 'Move' option and select the 'USB Storage Device' option. You will see your USB memory stick name pop up onscreen, so select it and the transfer process will begin. The progress will be shown onscreen how much data has been copied onto the device.

5) Only remove it once it has full been transferred because if you pull it out half way through, you will corrupt the data. Once it has been copied over, you can safely remove the 'USB memory stick' from the console. This is by pulling it outwards from the console.

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How To Delete Xbox Live Profile From a Xbox 360 Console

 

Each different user on a Xbox 360 console has their own unique profile that contains their own gamertag, Xbox Live membership, gamerscore, avatar, downloaded content and game save data. The data that is related to the Xbox 360 account is stored onto the attached hard drive on the console. If you are selling your Xbox 360 to somebody or you no longer want your Xbox Live profile on your Xbox 360 console, you can permanently delete it from the hard drive. This is so nobody else can use it. This is still possible offline, without connecting to Xbox Live because the profile is stored onto the hard drive of your console, not on the Xbox live servers.

1) Power on your Xbox 360 console, connect the controller and press the 'Eject' button to pop out the disc tray. This is because you don't want the game to start, you want the main menu to appear on screen.

2) Now from the 'Main Menu', keep going to the right side of the different options, until you see 'Settings'. 

3) Then go into 'System' > 'Storage' > 'Hard Drive' > 'Gamer Profiles'.

4) You will see now see all the current gamer profiles that are stored onto Xbox 360 consoles hard drive. Find the profile that you want to delete from the list.

5) Now select the gamer profile you want to remove, two options will be provided to you, choose the option that is most suited. Option 1 which is to 'Delete Profile Only', which will just delete the Xbox live profile and nothing else. Then there is option 2, which is to 'Delete Profile With Items', which will remove the profile, as well as all DLC content and game save data that is related to it.

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How To Power a Computer Fan With a 9V Volt Square Battery

Computer fans require 12 volts from a power source in order to operate inside computers. Computer fans are used in many different ways inside computers, to bring cool air into the case, extract hot air out of the case or blow cool air onto metal heat sinks to cool down hardware. Without a computer fan, hardware inside the computer will generate heat very quickly and will overheat in seconds. This will cause your PC hardware to easily get damaged during this process. If you have a spare computer fan that you don't require for a PC build, you can connect it to a 9 volt square battery for a small electrical project.

1) You will need a 9 volt battery snap connector. A battery snap, snaps onto the two metal positive and negative terminals, which are found on the top part of the battery. Using a battery snap ensures that when moving the wires about, the wire connections are secure to the battery, so they don't come off.

2) You will need a 9 volt battery. This will be the power source for your computer fan. Ensure that you purchase a brand new 9 volt battery, fresh out of the packet from a reputable manufacturer like Energizer or Duracell. This is because they are built to provide more battery life and will provide the full 9 volts to the fan. Cheap batteries are not the best alternative because they don't last as long and the voltage is really low.

3) Attach the 9 volt battery onto the battery snap. Line up the battery snap with the terminals on the battery and push it down. You can't get them mixed up because the battery snap is designed to only fit one way. Once the battery snap is fitted, you will hear a 'Click' sound.

4) Wire up the wires from the battery snap to the computer fan. The battery snap will have two color wires, a 'Red' (+) positive wire and a 'Black' (-) negative wire. The computer fan will also have two wires of the same color, so all you need to now do is match the colors up and connect them. So get a 'Wire Stripper' tool and remove the plastic coating insulation of all 4 wires. Then obtain the red wire from the battery snap and the other red wire from the computer fan a twist them together. Then obtain the black wire from the battery snap and the other black wire from the computer fan and also twist them together.

5) Tape up the connections you just made. Taping up the copper braids of the wires will prevent them touching each other and cause an electrical short in the circuit. So to prevent problems happening later on, cover them up with PVC electrical tape.

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DIY How To Connect & Power a Computer Fan Using a USB Port

Computer fans are used to cool down hardware that is suffering from overheating issues, to prevent damage occurring and to increase the lifespan of it. The computer fans work the same as desk fans do, as they have blades that spin that create air flow. If you have a spare computer fan lying around the house, you can make into a desk fan with a few simple modifications. Computer fans operate on a 12 volts line, which is usually provided by the motherboard or directly from the power supply unit. For the power source, you can use a spare USB port on your computer. A USB port can provide a maximum voltage of 5 volts, which is sufficient enough for your fan to power up. Not only can use this fan you make with your computer, you can also use it using a PS3 or Xbox 360 console because it also has USB ports integrated into the system. To make the fan, all you need is a USB cable of some sort which has connector and wire, as well as a few tools to create your very own desk fan.

1) Use a pair of 'Wire Strippers' to remove the plastic insulation coating from the USB wire. You will see 4 different colored small sized wires. The wires that the fan will require are the 'Red' color wire, which is the 5 volts line and the 'Black' wire for the ground. So remove the insulation of both of them wires and using a scissors, snip the other two remaining wire because you will not need them.

2) Most computer fans have three different color wires, known as a '3 Pin Connector' fan. A 'Red' wire, which is the 'Positive', a 'Black' wire, which is the 'Negative' and a 'White' color wire, which is called a 'Taco' wire, which is used to tell the motherboard the RPM speed of the fan. The only two wires you need it the red and black wires, you don't need the white color wire, so using a scissors snip it off. 

3) You will need to make the connections from the fan to the USB wire. So grab both the 'Red' wire from the fan and the 'Red' color wire from the USB wire and connect them together by twisting there copper braids. Then connect the 'Black' wire from the fan onto the 'Black' wire on the USB wire. Once you have made all the connections, using some insulation tape, cover the exposed copper braids up of the wires to prevent any short circuits happening.

4) Power on your computer, so the power supply unit can provide power to the USB ports on your computer. Then insert the USB wire connector into any spare USB port on your computer, i would suggest that the front panel USB ports are more convenient. Your computer fan will now be powered up by the USB port and will be blowing cool air out!

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