mezron

Your'e welcome Jim

I've got a couple of 7200 rpm maxtor drives in my computer. One or both of them make a bit of noise and I'd like to find out which without opening the case (it's a hassle to get out of my desk). I'm looking for a utility that I can use to make an individual hard drive spin down. In Linux I'd just type in hdparm -y /dev/hdb for example and that would put my slave drive on the primary IDE channel to sleep. Is there some utility I could download somewhere or command line equivalent to hdparm for Windows 2000/XP? I've tried looking around the net but the only pages I've found so far have been for specific laptops. Thanks, Jim

Hey, I didn't think of that! I have a Knoppix disk on hand too I used that program that I described earlier (it worked once) and was able to find out was I was after... both drives are noisy :x In the meantime though, I am still looking for something to use in Windows. I don't use my d: drive very often (only for backups) and so it would be nice to turn it off while still being able to use my computer. Heh... at this point even just finding a serial number for this software (hdsleep) would suit me... it certainly appears to be abandonware. I can't find any trace of the author anywhere. On a side note it's interesting to see a case of the software I want being readily available for Linux but next to impossible to find for Windows. Usually it's the other way around... 8) Jim

In IE click view-> status bar? I think thats what you're referring to anyway Jim

Quote: Not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but that's probably from installing the .NET Framework. It adds a user, 'ASPNET', therefore prompting for the user logon UI that you're recieving. Yea, it doesn't start showing you the logon prompt until the most recent update though. Kinda weird the way it works... you don't actually see aspnet on the logon screen, only your own logon (assuming single user machine here). Machines that had multiple users already would never see it happening, not that it's a problem per-se just a nuisance for us with single user setups. Jim

I'm not sure what to tell you. You're using the same tweakui I am. Just to be sure, you're clicking on the word logon and not the plus next to it. It's not in a sub-menu of logon... the autologon thing is in a submenu of logon. If you like I'll e-mail you a screenshot, I'll need your email address though. Jim

It's in there. Just click on Logon on the left, don't click on the plus next to it. It'll be in the same screen as your logon name. Jim

hmmm... timebomb on the software. It only works once, and the authors website is gone ...off I go looking again. Jim

Just wanted to let everyone know I found what I was looking for. Here is a link for anyone interested. http://www.infoclub.com.np/download/utdisk.htm Hard disk sleeper is the one that puts a drive into sleep mode. It works on XP too The file that is downloaded is a self extracting .exe called hdsleep.exe. Contained within is a file also called hdsleep.exe so you'll want to rename the file that is downloaded otherwise you'll either overwrite the original, or you won't extract the file you want. Jim

Try here http://download.sis.com/sisdlc/driver_select.jsp I would expect though that even if your card supports opengl that it'll be slow. Slow enough that you'd probably rather use software rendering. SIS isn't known for gaming performance. Good luck! Jim

Quote: I'm using XP Pro. When I initially installed it, I set it to log into Windows without a password screen. A couple of weeks ago when I had to reboot, it started up ans displayed a password screen that more resembles Windows NT. I just hit OK without a password and it botts up as usual. Also, when I click Start and then Shutdown...the resulting dialog box also looks like an NT box. Does anyone know how to reset it back to what looked more like XP screens ? I'm guessing you installed a .net update from the windows update site and when you rebooted because of that you started seeing this. I'm sure there is a simple registry setting to change that will fix it but I don't know what it is. How I fixed it on my computer though is like this. Download Tweak UI from Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp and install it. It makes an entry in your start menu under all programs, which is different from the older versions that put themselves in the control panel. Anyhoo... open tweak ui and on the left side of the screen click on "logon" and on the right side of the screen take the check out of "show aspnet on welcome screen" Jim

Quote: They need to cheat in order to inflate the score, so that they could appear to be "way" ahead instead of little bit of advantage. Happens all the time. It was just about 18 months ago that ATI was caught doing the same thing with the Quake benchmark. http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEx Jim

Quote: Take a peek here, I believe this controls that loading of pics: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ AdvancedOptions\MULTIMEDIA\PICTS * (What you want to toy with in there for YOUR problem though, I really have NO idea... I just know that has to deal with pic loads!) APK The only thing I saw in there that I could decipher was turning images on or off, the other stuff was a little over my skill level . I did find this one though and tried messing with it HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Setting\MaxConnectionsPerServer The default setting there is 32, I dropped it all the way down to 2 and it seemed to help but man does it slow down page loading (as if it could get any slower) so I set it back to it's default. I'll keep looking around and if I find an answer I'll post it. The problem isn't my ISP it's the phone line itself. I've tried 5-6 different ISP's here in the last 18 months with similar results. Heh, I've even connected my computer to my cell phone and used it as a modem As for other ways to connect, Satellite or ISDN are my only other options. Each of those are about $100 per month, unless I pay for the satellite equipment and install up front (@$700) then it drops to $60 per month. A bit out of reach for me right now, but I probably will go that route in the future. Jim

I liked it I thought the story in this one was a little better than the first, but I seem to remember there being more action in the first. I'm about to pop in the tape and freshen my memory At any rate it's worth the ticket price Jim

Some bios have an option to set a delay for the IDE initialization. If your bios has this feature try setting it to something like 4-6 seconds and see if the problem goes away. Jim

Quote: 499 bucks they can keep it.. Why does everything else in computer get cheaper except video cards? Law of supply and demand thing. High end gamers will pay to have the hottest thing the day it's available. If you stay just 1 generation back the prices are reasonable. It happens with all the high visibility parts like cpu's and hard drives as well. Jim

Quote: That's handy IF you don't use encryption OR 'radical changes' to the NTFS filesystem rights. The networking layer'd probably get you by that though... think so, if you do it over a small rigged-up LAN like you describe, & simple file sharing is in place etc.? (Neat, if that's actually part of it, still being able to hookup to a LAN & nab your stuff!) APK Yea, you'd be kinda hosed if your hard drive is encrypted. The networking won't care about the encryption but the disk you're booting off of and trying to mount your hard drive with the data sure will. At the very least I would expect you'd be able to do more with this bootable cd as far as recovery type stuff goes than you currently can with the recovery console on the Win2k/xp cd. Thankfully I haven't had to do much with the recovery console, but the few times I did I found it a bit lacking as far as I was concerned. Jim

Quote: Heh, that's cool... a "mini NT/2k/XP" environment run from a Cd-Rom bootup! * Practical uses? (In other words on my question, HOW would YOU use it, if you had to use it?) APK P.S.=> Still, someone went & got 'creative' with the given tools they had to work with, & that's cool by me... I downloaded it, but am thinking to myself "How would I use such a bootup from Cd-Rom partial & shaved down NT based Os environment?"... apk First thing that comes to mind for me is when the system wont boot and you just want to get the data off before you reformat. Hook up a laptop or another computer with a crossed over cat5 cable and just copy your stuff over to a share on the other computer temporarily. Jim

Recognize any of these? http://www.winternet.com/~mikelr/flame1.html Jim

Quote: Yup! (I've posted that one a couple times, that page makes me laff (not only @ others I've known over time & their antics online, but also myself @ times... we all have our days!)) * Heh... that always makes me laff... I'd love to have a collage-type poster of all of those here in my computer room, lol, kid you not! Just for laffs, that's vintage "nerd/geek" humor! APK I just found myself nodding a lot at all the different categories he came up with and thier description... Oh man I tried to find myself in there but I couldn't find a single one that fit me. I could find a few traits spread out over a few different ones though I have this http://www.despair.com/in24x30prin.html hanging on my wall right next to my computer Jim

Here ya go http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813926 Yup, the only difference is the JVM Jim

Quote: Whats the easiest way to tell whether an XP system is running Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 1a if both still have the MS JVM installed? The System Properties still say "Service Pack 1" and the System Information tool shows both the SP1 machine and the SP1a machine as having the same version of XP. Is the lack of the MS Java VM the only real difference between SP1 and SP1a or is there more? I'm pretty sure the JVM is the only difference. Jim

Quote: But hey, their systems do come in cool colors, and that's important, right? To some I'm sure it is. I liken it to "the journey is more important than the destination" mentality myself. A lot of mac people I know would fit in that category. I'm a pc user myself, but I do own a mac also. I needed to have one to learn how to use it and network it with Windows machines for a couple of my customers. There is a certain charm to them. But pound for pound I get more out of a pc. I think if someone (like the ever popular Grandma you always hear about) needs or wants a computer and doesn't need things that are specific to a pc then a mac is a great way to go. All the basic multimedia stuff is there, internet, e-mail, etc. If they want to do any basic video editing, or digital camera stuff... that stuff is way easier on a mac. No viuses to speak of either. Macs actually do have a bit going for them. They're obviously not for everyone though. Jim

Quote: and THERE is a reason macs can suck! - no reg files - just copy it over and tadda!!! it works on any other system! - u can't do that with the majority of PC applications - there is Apple's great technology bitting them selves in the ass! I guess this just highlights whats more important for a vendor in regards to thier users Apple... how can we make the computer experience a little friendlier for the user? Some people will rip us off, so be it. Our focus is making it friendlier for our legit users. Microsoft... How can we make it more difficult for people to rip us off? If it inconveniences a some legitimate customers, so be it. No returns on opened software. Personally I'm of the some people will rip us off, so be it group. Most people are honest some are not. I can't think of a single time that any form of technology designed to stop me from stealing software has helped me out... in any way whatsoever. I can hower think of several times said technology has tried to stop me from doing something legitimate. Jim

Quote: Technically, VESA ran at 40MHz and PCI at 33MHz. So, at the time, VLB was superior. But again, VHS vs BETA. Was that just on the 486 DX2 80 or was that on all systems? 40Mhz is kind of an oddball number even during that time period ;( . How fast did it run on 25Mhz multiplied systems like the DX4 100? I do remember it being something of a Beta vs VHS thing also though. Jim