YuppieScum

Quote: First, I am a programmer and I know why we don't support a beta os. It is EXPENSIVE! It is hard enough to make software that works on one os correctly. Now try supporting a OS that changes on a month to month basis. Also, customer support doubles every os you support, and CS is really expensive. As cheap as it is for software, and as expensive it is to hire programmers. It is a real strain on a company to support multiple OS. It all depends what you mean by support. As a developer, I take pride in all my s/w being able to run properly. To this end, I re-work and test all my s/w under the new betas of whatever OS I intend supporting. Anything that I release for a non-gold OS is without support - which means you can't phone me up and say "This doesn't work, you owe me a working version, make it work." It does mean "Here, try this, and if it fscks up, mail this address. Don't expect a response." This is the attitude I take - and is what I expect from others - when I'm involved in a beta program. What I don't expect - and what I do get from Creative Labs and Matrox and others - is "We won't do drivers 'til it's gold." This attitude pisses all over those of us who try to make things work. I would exhort Ms to deny beta stqatus to those who whold this state of mind, but . . . rant off

Have you got any kind of "Quick Boot" option enabled in your BIOS? If so, all that happens is that your memory is "sized", not tested. Even if not, the POST of memory is not exhustive. It will not detect soft errors, no will it detect memory that is thermally unstable.

Liveware is not supported under W2K and the great hack of the NT4 drivers only works on single CPU machines. You can find this out from any number of threads in this forum, and from the instructions for the hack. Please don't waste everybodies time by re-asking questions... [This message has been edited by YuppieScum (edited 12 December 1999).]

Quote: -AMD K6-2 350 o/c'ed 400 -3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra (currently running SiS 6326 AGP) What TNT drivers are you using? Are you running at an non-standard FSB - not 66/100/133? What does "(currently running SiS 6326 AGP)" actually mean? Are you using a non-standard BIOS for the vid card?

Quote: Do you think it might be Liveware!? Almost certainly. Don't forget that Liveware does not currently support W2K. You know, it would help enormously if you'd said that you'd installed Liveware to begin with...

What mobo & BIOS? What type of drive i/f - SCSI, IDE, UDMA, ATA/66? Make sure you've got the latest BIOS for the mobo. Also make sure you're not installing on an ATA/66. Then, use the text-mode setup bit to do the re-partition and reformat of the drive. Even better, check www.win2k.et and read their FAQ on how to make a bootable NT CD. [This message has been edited by YuppieScum (edited 11 December 1999).]

This is definatly not a bug in W2K - my mic input has worked perfectly in all releases that have supported my sound card. Ensure that, in the Sound and Multimedia control panel, under the Audio tab, that the sound card is defined as a recording source - as well as trying the suggestion from SHS above.

This might be a little beyond your price range (but don't forget, they can always be an Xmas prezzie to yourself), but www.benwin.com do a really great "flat panel + sub-bass" combo for about $90 - I bought a set for my box a work, and they're great. They look and sound way cool. UDATE: I've just checked the site, and they're now selling for $69.95 [This message has been edited by YuppieScum (edited 11 December 1999).]

Regarding memory testing - go to your local computer fair. Most will have at least one stand with a real-live hardware memory tester. The guys I used to go to would test all the memory they sold right in front of you, and they would test and ID memory bought from other stands, or even stuff you bought with you, for a couple of quid.

Byron - I have a pair of Celeron 300a's that I run @ 450, so you're on your own there However, my old CL TNT card runs at it's stock speed, and so does my Quantum3D Obsidian (VooDoo2 SLI on a single card). FWIW, at lot of probs seems to be as much with odd FSB steppings as anything - if you run 75 or 105 instead of 66 or 100, the PCI and AGP busses run too fast, and everything starts to fsck up. Maybe we need to start a W2K FAQ - but it's probably a little late given the pending RTM . . .

What build of W2K? Also, have you installed LiveWare (of whatever version) - this may the probby. Also, what happens when you run the CPU at its "native" speed? [This message has been edited by YuppieScum (edited 10-12-1999).]

I have a seperate partition that I upgrade then "clean install" each new release to - then if it's stable after a few days it upgrades the main partition. Once W2K gets RTM, I'll do a clean install, and re-install Office2K and things.

The word "around the campfire" is to expect RTM in about 10 days - I think everyone at MS is planning on this being Bills Xmas prezzie.

A final thought or two...if you're planning to go completely SCSI at some point, it's worth investing a little bit more to get a dual-channel card (of whatever brand). That way, you can keep the slower devices like CD-ROM, CD-R(W), ZIP, scanners, etc on one, and the high-speed HDs on the other. Also, some high-end mobos have SCSI built in - take a look at SuperMicro, for example.

As soon as EasyCD access the RW drive, W2K blue-sceens with a failure in the new G400 driver. Anyone got this combo working?

Yeah, I think I have that insomnia gene too...2AM here, what TZ are you in? FWIW, build 2194 is now available - d/l'ing now...

JimmyK - what does it matter if the boot-up time is a bit longer when you only reboot once a month Personally, I will always use Adaptec 'cos they've always been very good to me (the cards, not the company) but you pay your money, and make your choice... Regarding the reformat - you can reformat any non-NT-system-boot volume from the UI - just right click and hit "format". doesn't matter if it's NTFS or FAT. If you want to re-format the boot/system volume - you do it from the "text mode" NT setup interface. From there you can delete, recreate and format a partition.

Hey Byron! Many congrats! where is everybody? i posted late EST, and now there are three comments! is everyone in california, or just lacking in having a life?

I've certainly noticed that RC3 is faster han RC2 - probably due to reduction in debug code and closer-to-final drivers. Also, there is a "build2194" directory on the Ms FTP site...

Always get an Adaptec. Every OS is supported, and last I heard the internal MS standard for SCSI on their boxes is Adaptec (network cards are 3COM). Spend the extra cash, and you get a card that will ALWAYS work. Support is superb. (no they're not paying me for this) [This message has been edited by YuppieScum (edited 07 December 1999).]

The long term MS plan has always been a convergance of the different OSs. That is, one code-base for all the versions. This can already be seen in the NT world - workstation, server, advanced server, data centre, enterprise, etc. Ms had origianlly planned that w2k and the next rev of 9x would be the convergance point between the domestic and business worlds, but for a number of reasons that isn't happening this time round - instead the domestic user is getting "millenium". The next rev of all the should be the convergance point, once all the IHVs start to make WDM drivers. Regarding SMP, ALL GAMES WILL BENEFIT from an extra CPU under an SMP OS, as the OS itself is multi-threaded. You won't see 100% speed-up, maybe 10-15% Also, if you run more than 1 app at the same time, like burn a CD, browse the web, IRC, USENET and stuff, SMP is for you!!!

I'll try the update ayway, but things only started going wrong why I put in the G400 and the 5.x beta drivers. I think it might be time to kick back to the TNT until the Geforce DDr arrives

Hm...Q3A runs OK, but reports comparatively few GL_EXT supported - nothing like the list from the TNT drivers. D3D test in DXDIAG fragged my box when it ran in hardware. Wonder how long we'll have to wait for the next driver release . . .

I've seen this error with burned CD's when 1. FlexCD or similar is running; or 2. The burn was Track-at-once, not Disc-at-once. You might want to post your W2K build, and what (if any) CD s/w you've got installed.

There are currently no 3D drivers of any sort for the G400 under W2K. The bastards at Matrox have been promising them for ages, but all they've released is a pre-beta 2D driver.