adamvjackson

There are some commercial utilities available which will remove/reset a lost administrator password, and some freeware Linux bootdisks... http://www.google.com should turn up a few places to start.

Just for the sake of argument, will you humor me and download MemTest86? You'll probably want to let it run for about 30-40 mins...

Ok, I'm joining this discussion a bit late, I'm sorry, but just to recap... 1. You couldn't get Windows XP installed on your laptop, right? 2. You previously had Windows 98 on it. 3. You recently upgraded the RAM. Now, I suspect that the newly upgraded RAM may be bad or incompatible, I'm sorry, I should have noticed this earlier. What I would do, at this point, before you start stressing too much, is test your RAM. You can download a very good utility, MemTest86 that will create a boot floppy to test your RAM. It's free, by the way, too. It sounds to me as though that's the root of the problem. As always, hope this helps, and let me (us) know how you make out. [Edit] My reason for asking if you previously ran Windows 98 is this: Windows 98 addresses RAM differently (AFAIK) than 2000/XP does, and you can often run Windows 9X with bad RAM and just occasionally get blue screens... [/Edit]

The only RTS game that I really enjoy (still...) is Age of Empires 2... Any thoughts on how it compares?

View all hidden files on the floppy, either rename or delete himem.sys...

What SP level do you have, Nick? Also do you have the latest BIOS and driver versions?

A few suggestions for you; Radioactive Frog... 1. Check the BIOS, there should be a screen that lets you monitor the hardware temps... Does anything seem abnormal there? 2. While there, there should also be some options for what the system will do in an overheat instance... What is that setting currently? 3. Check the Windows XP Event Viewer after one of the restarts... Anything abnormal there? Let me know what you find, and as suggested, some case fans may very well help out. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the heads-up on this one... I really wish ATI would release a unified driver package similar to Nvidia's... Wishful thinking, anyway.

Open up the Config.sys file on your bootdisk in a text editor. Notepad will work just fine for this. Look for a line that reads something like this: Code: DEVICE=A:\HIMEM.SYS Delete that line. Reboot with bootdisk, reflash BIOS.

Actually, 1280x960 is a 'proper' resolution. By that, I mean a 4:3 ratio, like 640x480, 800x600, 1280x960, 1600x1200, etc. Not really sure why 1280x1024 really took off, as that is really the oddball... And yes, I run my desktop at 1280x1024... You might be able to adjust the resolution with a third party app to fit your screen better... Also, as was stated in a thread a few days ago, if the screen is off-center in a certian resolution, try changing refresh rates. P.S. How is Generals? Thinking about buying that this weekend.

http://www.silicon.com/news/500022-500001/1/2854.html Remember hearing about this fellow a few weeks ago in the news?

No problem.

http://homepage.mac.com/aaronsteele/Personal8.html

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

I've heard that rumor, too, I guess it's to be based upon a SQL.

Quote: the issue is that when i try to logon hotmail, the IE gives the error "the page cannot be found, bla, bla..." Try pressing 'Refresh' when you get the 404 message... Often works fine that way.

Duhmez, have you thought about filing a bug report with Microsoft? Hopefully those issues could/would be addressed in a future SP...

Well, I think it's fairly safe to say most everyone's score(s) will be going down with the soon-to-be-released 3DMark03... Rumor has it that it will be released Feb. 11th, for those who are interested.

Say, APK, do you have any recommendations on removable IDE HDD racks? I've looked at a few in the past, but usually they are built of really cheap plastic, and do a horrible job of keeping the drives cool... Any suggestions? Thanks!

The topic of which is superior, 2000/XP, has been discussed many times here... The conclusion remains basically 'use what you have, or what you're most comfortable with.'

I think perhaps you should check out setting up a VPN... http://www.labmice.net

As far as the taskbar is concerned, there's a nice 3rd party applet, freeware, that handles the alpha transparency nicely... TransBar

If you have SP2/SP3 installed, you can enable compatibility mode, similar to that which is included in Windows XP by following these directions: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279792

A quick search at groups.google.com turned up many Charter customers having problems with FTP/HTTP servers... As I suspected, these ports have been blocked for non-commercial accounts.

Possible, if they're sniffing for the ftp protocol... To be honest, all I've ever done on their network is set up an FTP on 20/21 and I was able to connect just fine within the subnet. I suspect that Charter blocks these ports as most home users do not need these or would be exploited by virui. Upgrading to a commercial account is probably your best bet. If my method of reasoning is correct, about home users having open FTP ports being exploted by virui, trojans, etc. then it would stand to reason that someone who ordered a commercial account would be more aware of security issues than a home user. Food for thought...