Myke

Hmmm... well, you've done a couple of things wrong to begin with: Problem #1: You've posted a question regarding to Macs in the Windows forum. You might get crucified for that one. I understand that you are asking a question about a Microsoft product, but you are also talking about consorting with the enemy: Apple. There is a completely different forum further down the page for Apple. I would highly suggest going to that forum, as they would be much more able to help you. Problem #2: You bought a Mac. Sorry, but that's about all I can offer.

Also, if you feel that it could be a memory problem, try running the memory diagnostic outside of Windows. If you boot to the utility partition and perform a custom test on the memory, it'll run a more thorough scan (including stress tests) than inside of Windows. Do keep in mind, however, that the memory diagnostics are not 100% accurate; occassionaly, these tests may pass the memory when there actually may be something wrong with the memory. In addition, 3 years is not too old for a personal computer. The industry standard for businesses is 3 years, but the key word here is "businesses." If you still have these problems, then I'd follow Sampson's last piece of advice and just fork out the extra cash to have someone fix it.

Ah... Freespace; what an awesome game that was. What you might need to do is check the video card compatibility. It might need to be run in a different resolution, as well. Right-click the executable file and click Propterites; go to the Compatibility tab. See if there are any boxes which state that if checked, to run the executable file in a lower resolution. I know that worked for Myst, but who knows with Freespace. Also, have you checked the developer's site? They sometimes are pretty good about describing how to run old games on newer platforms. Seeing as Freespace was just plain amazing, they're bound to have some information. P.S. Appropriate user name for this question. I likes

So when you plug your keyboard in after the OS loads up, the mouse stops working. Are you saying that the keyboard will then work? Does your keyboard work when using a USB mouse? Does you machine boot up if your keyboard and USB mouse are plugged in? This will help determine if you fried something in your machine.

Once again, I am having issues with the firewall policy in ISA 2004. I have Symantec AntiVirus Corportate Edition version 10.1 installed on all of our machines. One server is the primary server which acts as the parent server. The client was installed on the ISA server, but this had to be done manually, as the installation could not be completed via Remote Install in the SSC. The problem is this: the ISA server is not receiving the virus definition updates from the parent server as it should. I have been manually downloading those updates from the Symantec site (and yes, I am downloading the XDB file which is the correct file for the Corporate Edition). I have been working on this problem off and on for over a year now, but cannot seem to get the firewall policy on the ISA server to work properly (as before, this is also causing issues with Backup Exec 10). The parent server has no problem running LiveUpdate. All documentation that I have read does not provide solutions for working with ISA. Other Specifics: - TCP/UDP ports 2967 and 38293 are opened in the ISA firewall policy to allow traffic from the ISA to the parent server (have tried bidirectional as well) - ISA OS is Windows 2000 SP4 - All necessary updates/firmware have been installed - Parent server OS is Windows Server 2003 R2 - All other machines on network operating normally - ISA is the only firewall between parent server and ISA server As always, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

The problem with that is that the ISA server is our gateway. Opening up every port between the gateway and our mail server/DC could pose some interesting and rather evil results. I'm trying to avoid that approach. Now if the communication was only going from the parent to the ISA, then I do not believe it would be a problem. However, seeing as all documentation that I have read state that the connection must be going from the ISA to the parent server, that changes things up a bit.

Are there any events in your event viewer? When you say "original desktop page," what exactly are you referring to? Also, make sure that all of your devices are updated to the latest of their drivers (this goes for you OS as well; do you have SP2?).

Just a side note, seeing as you asked to use "dummy" talk. To get into your BIOS, you have to reboot your computer and hit the command associated with Setup. Usually, there will be a brief (and I mean brief) message displayed either at one of the corners or on the bottom of the screen just seconds after the bootup begins. It is usally one of the F buttons (e.g., F2). You may have to do this a few times before you get it right.

Does your event viewer show anything? You can get there by clicking Start | Run, and typing in eventvwr and hit Enter. Check through the logs to see if it shows anything related to the crash.

IRQ = Interrupt Request Essentially, certain tasks/devices/"ports" use specific IRQs, which stop the processor actions to use the processor. Your mouse has its own IRQ, as does your video adapter, soundcard, and system clock (a total of 16 different IRQs, but only about 5 or 6 of them are really configurable). If you have, let's say, your video card and your network adapter using the same IRQ, this could cause your system to crash because they are both trying to use the processor at exactly the same time. Think of it like a traffice jam on a major highway. To check your IRQs, you'll have to go into your Device Manager in System Properties (it will be in the Details tab of a device's properties) and look through ceratin elements in there. Start with your soundcard, video adapters, and network adapters. If you notice a device using the same IRQ as another major device, this could cause conflicts. I'm not saying that this is definitely the answer, but it could have something to do with it; most likely the video adapter, as StarCraft sounds like it is using a different resolution to play the game than what your OS is using, and your network adapter, as it's probably in constant use.

You can change this through "Regional and Language Options" in the Control Panel. Once the window opens, click on the "Language" tab and click "Details" under the "Text services and input languages" button. When the new window opens, select "Keyboard" under "Installed services" and click the "Add" button. There, you can select the type of keyboard you are using. You might want to have your Windows XP disc on you, as it might ask for it if any additional files need to be copied/installed from the disc.

Go to their website and download the software that takes care of that. It will include the drivers and such. Do you happen to have the original disks that came with the machine? Those usually have the original drivers that came pre-installed on the computer, which is really helpful for situations like yours.

I don't know if you really want to do that. It's a pain in the neck to start from scratch. You should definitely try to install the VGA adaptder. Maybe even try rolling back your driver. Go to your Hardware Manager and look at your display adapter. It will have a Driver tab, where you have the option of rolling back. See if that helps.

To uninstall DirectX, you have to use a 3rd party program, like this one: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4347.html After that, reboot your machine, then install DirectX 9.0c again. Have you tried up[censored] your machine with Windows Update? It might be able to help you with drivers. It's not always as intuitive as it should be, but it's a start. If you still need to install the drivers after that, go to the manufacturers web site. If you aren't sure where to go, look in your System Properties (hold Windows key and hit Print|Break) and look at your device manager under the Hardware tab. You should be able to find the information in there.

Try uninstalling directx, then reboot, then reinstall it. Do the same with the card's driver. If none of those work, uninstall the game, reboot, and reinstall. If you don't reboot after uninstalling something, whatever is corrupt could still be lurking in the background. Rebooting flushes the cache where it could still be stored. Also, check the event viewer, which might provide you with some additional information.

Well, it could be an issue with the video adapter conflicting with the network adapter. Check your IRQs and make sure that they aren't conflicting with each other.

It's pretty easy to make the change. All you need to do is make the proper adjustments to the jumper settings. Just take a look at the top on your HDDs for the settings, making PATA the slave drive and SATA the primary/master. It may take a couple of tries before you get it right, though (enter CMOS to check that the system can read the drives properly). If you do it correctly, then you shouldn't need to do anything else besides booting up.

Try adding the site to your "Trusted Sites" section in IE options under the Security tab. Also, does this message pop up if you use a different browser, like FireFox? I've noticed that certain things will work in FireFox, but not in IE (and vice versa). The run completely seperate engines.

This actually depends on whether the two drives are on the same physical disk or on seperate ones. If the are on seperate physical drives, then you will have to change the jumper settings. Most HDDs have these charted out on the top of the drives themselves. If not, then you'll have to look at the manufacturers web site for specific instructions. In case you aren't sure, you are going to want to make the D:\ drive the Primary/Master drive and the C:\ drive the Slave drive.

If you clear the cache (temporary Internet files), it will not remove your search history; that is done through a seperate process. Sometimes you need to delete your temporary files due to a corrupt page, which happens for a number of reasons. The corrupted cache causes issues for the site it is associated with. As for the "Clear the SSL State," I don't think that will affect your issue because you are not dealing with an https site. The SSL state stores user authentication certificates, which validate that you are who you say you are. A better explanation is available on Microsoft's web site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290345

Have you noticed a pattern as to when these instances happen? For example, a particular cut scene, an audio clip, playing over BattleNet. This could help pinpoint what is going on. In addition, there should be some minidump files which your OS creates when your system crashes. I believe that they are located in C:\Windows\System32\minidump. If not, just do a search for *.dmp files. I wouldn't suggest trying to read them, as they will give you one hell of a headache. Microsoft has applications which run in MS-DOS that can translate what the minidump files are saying.

Have you tried simply clearing the cache to see if that helps?

Removing programs does not free up RAM. It only frees up space on your HDD. If you are trying to speed up your PC, what you need to do is go through your services and find out what does not need to be running. You can prevent those services from starting up by editting MSCONFIG. To do so, click Start | Run, then type in msconfig. Only edit the startup tab; this is very important, as modification to the other tabs could create some insanely bad issues for you. If you still desire more performance, you can increase the amount of virtual memory, which uses your HDD space as RAM. To do this, go to your system properties (hold down the Windows key and hit Pause|Break), click the Advanced tab, click the Settings tab under the Performance section, then click the Advanced tab and the Change button under the Virtual Memory section. After you make the changes, make sure that you click the Set button, then OK out of all windows.

It is definitely your hard drive. I had the same thing happening to one of my PCs. I ignored it and dealt with the random reboots until the system wouldn't even boot up before rebooting again. This is something that cannot be fixed, as it is a physical error on the HDD. Reformatting the drive and reinstalling the OS does not work. My advice is buy a new HDD ASAP and transfer your files before the entire drive completely fails. I know from experience and it's not fun.

Well, you might be wasting your money if you try to use different types of RAM. A lot of times, adding RAM of a different speed can make the other RAM not function properly. You are best off either adding more RAM of the same type, or completely replacing all of the RAM. One quick solution would be to buy two sticks of 1 GB RAM at a higher MHz and replace the other two stick; expensive, but it works. And if you are feeling generous, you could ship the other 2 sticks of 512 RAM to me... eh, it was worth a try.