ByronT

Not that this information will help you, but.... I've got a USR 56K Sportster ISA - a hardware modem, and with the packaged MS drivers I only would get 28.8 connections. I went to the 3Com/USR web site and downloaded the .inf file (for Win9X) that corresponded to my modem (00568702.inf), used Device Manager to update to that .inf file and viola -> 45K connections. So head on over to 3Com and find that .inf file. No promises, no guarantees... Hope this helps! ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but have you seen the document button added to the Standard Button bar of IE? The one that has "Discuss" as it's text? Is Microsoft incorporating comment/review capabilities to IE? When you click on it, it asks for a "Discussion Server"... Just wondering... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Last week I noticed that MS had put made some Device Drivers available via the Windows Update web site. And all of them were listed as "...INTERNAL USE ONLY. PUBLIC USE IS HIGHLY DISCOURAGED." Well, as an update to that post... those six drivers are now gone from the web site - causing me to ask a few questions: Did anyone try those drivers out? And if you did, what was your experience with those drivers? As for me, I wasn't brave/stupid enough to try them out. But a friend of mine did and he said it BSODed him pretty well. Well enough in fact that he had to clean install Win2K again.... Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

I seem to recall that there was a huge MS debate about the PlainTextPassword reg key. And I also seem to recall that MS allowed it in RC1 but killed it in RC2. I think that the reason was that the security of Win2K was overly compromised and having that reg key actually caused some serious bugs. MS said to pooey with it and killed it in RC2. At least, I think that's the way it went down. I could be wrong... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

I once heard someone say something like "Don't let the facts get in the way." You might be correct about the native resolution of this scanner, but I can tell you that in practice the scanner has lost some capabilities: In Windows 98 SE, I could fire up OmniPage Pro 10 and scan a plain text page with over 90% accuracy just using the HP drivers and the Caere program. Under Windows 2000, I can fire up the same OmniPage Pro 10 and scan the same plain text page and my accuracy drops to below 50%. That's right: over half the words that were previously recognized using the HP drivers and the Caere program are now being unrecognized by the MS drivers and the Caere program. When it comes to the dpi settings, for all I know you could be correct - that 600 dpi interpolated is the highest resolution. But I can't even get that dpi scanned in - the highest that PhotoDraw 2000 offers (with the MS drivers) is 400 dpi. Regardless, I've already sold the scanner to someone with Windows 98, and I am now in the market for another scanner - one with a much higher native dpi scan resolution. Any suggestions?

Uh, tahoe. For most of the people here posting, we read about thirty messages a week usually asking the same questions about one of the following: 1 - SBLive, 2 - Q3 and Voodoo, 3 - Q3 and OpenGL, and others. When someone posts a question such as yours, it looks as if you haven't even searched the forum to find that 1 - SBLive with LiveWare and SMP die and die horribly, 2 - installing LiveWare for Win2K is a hack (and some people have problems getting the hack to work and others don't). Then you come back and flame one of the nicest people on the forums saying something worked that you originally asked if it would work: Your first post: "is there a work around to make live ware 2.1 work in win2k and SMP enabled" Your latest post: "well i did use Live ware 2.1 in win2k b4, with SMP and it worked" Something does not add up... If you got it to work before, how did you do it? Let us know so that we can help others (which is actually what we are attempting here...) Maybe using your information on how you got it to work earlier, someone can figure out another hack to make it work now... Thankfully, I'm using a Diamond MX300 and I can ignore most of the SBLive stuff.... For my own part, I have found that if there is someone who is being an a##hole in this thread, it's not Yuppie... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Agreed (to Yuppie...) My problem is buying something that is on the HCL, getting it and then finding out that the Microsoft drivers are crippled _AND_ the hardware company decides not to support the device or develop Win2K drivers for it. Case in point: I purchased an Hewlett Packard ScanJet 4100Cse (USB) about two months ago. Used in Win98 and got great scans (9600dpi) and great printouts. Windows 2000 recognizes it and installs a Microsoft driver for it. The problem - the Microsoft driver maxes out at 400dpi, and @$%@#$#$% Hewlett Packard has announced that it will not support USB scanners under Windows 2000. Therefore, no drivers for this good/great Windows 98 USB scanner. Know anyone who would like to purchase this? And... Any recommendations for another scanner with high resolution capability (I know that I'm going to end up getting another SCSI scanner...) Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

No problem. In fact, if there is anything that I HATE about Windows 2000/Office 2000/new Microsoft products - it's that @$#%@#$ personalized menus. Thankfully MS decided to allow you to cut the darn "feature" off. There's nothing more annoying than getting used to doing something a certain way or looking in a certain area for something and something else decides "Oh, this guy didn't use that but once in the last four weeks. Therefore, he doesn't need immediate access to it...." That one definitely falls under "features I could have done without" or "stuff that sounds great on paper but is stupid on implementation." I'm willing to bet some marketing dope came up with the idea and ALL the programmers said "No, nobody wants that." But the marketing fool had the priority and got it implemented... <Soap_Box_Mode_Off> Regards...

I'm running Build 2183 and NetMeeting is found under Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications program group. I didn't install it from MS's website so I must have gotten it when I installed from the RC3 CD. I just checked the Add/Remove Programs, it's not there, and it can't be installed as a "Windows Component" via that same Panel. I guess that if it didn't install as part of the RC3 install, you're out of luck. Hope this helps (and maybe you already have it and just didn't know it...) ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

You ask: Why buy the final code when you can download it for free? I ask: Why do you go to a grocery store and pay for the milk when you could stick it under your shirt and walk out with it? It's called stealing, and not only is it wrong, it's illegal. I happen to sale software that my programmer creates for my clients, and I take great offense at software theft. Concerning this particular case, I received RC3 because my programmer is a MSDN member - but I will purchase the product when it comes out. No matter how much I complain about the high price, the predatory practices of MS, etc. If they say I have to pay X dollars for the product, I'll pay X dollars because it's the right thing to do (and because I wouldn't want a customer of mine stealing from me.) Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Hmmm.. I never messed with 98SE, and my Win98 machine running IE 5.01 doesn't have it either. That's why I thought it was new... Regards...

How are you starting Windows Explorer? If you're talking about the one found in the Start Button. It's even easier to change where it starts up... Simply click on the Start Button, choose Programs, Accessories, and then RIGHT-CLICK on Windows Explorer. Click on Properties. In the Target: entry area, click at the end of the text that should read %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe. Add a space and then the path of where you want the explorer to open to. Note: This will actually turn the explorer into the Open command. (I've forgotten the registry settings and the command line switch to force explore mode.) But truthfully, you can use some keyboard shortcuts just as quickly.... Windows key+E = explore My Computer. or Windows key+R brings up the Run window, where you can just type the path you need (C:\Program Files, D:\, etc...) Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Sounds like you've got a fun one on your hands... Everything that you're telling us is pointing us to the memory. But it could be that the motherboard slot is bad... possibly it's even a motherboard issue. Do you have any way to drop the memory into another machine? What I would do is another thing though... But I have some specialized software tools to do it, and you might not. If you're planning on working on computers for a living, you might want to go ahead and invest (yes, invest - good tools cost good money)in some specialized software. A company called Data Depo makes some exceptional hardware testing products. (They are located at http://www.datadepo.com ) They produce a standalone package called WhatMEM that will find all memory errors - even ones you didn't know you had. Of course, it might take a while for the tests to run. Good luck (happy troubleshooting...)

Yuppie is right. The reading of memory when booting up is really only checking the amount of memory there. I've seen it catch bad memory maybe once in every fifty times that the memory is actually bad. The worst kind of memory errors are the thermal ones, since they don't even show up until the machine has been running for a while and the memory then gets accessed. That's why even hardware testers sometimes don't do a good job, because they can test in such a hurry that the memory never reaches the temperature at which it fails. It's also the reason that though I can't stand the time it takes for my testing program to run, I can at least guarantee that the memory is good. Regards... PS. I was just wondering. The other day, I noticed that "Senoir Member" showed up beneath my name, though now it's back to "Member." What's the difference and how's it determined? Just wondering...

My setup falls outside of the price range you posted - unless you can find them at an auction site for sale... But I have used a Bose three speaker setup, a Sony three speaker setup, Advent Powered Partners AV570 two speaker system and finally have settled with Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000 Digital. Of all of these setups, the Cambridge SoundWorks has been unmatched - for games and for playing CDs. My desktop actually thumps in time with hard bass output (when I crank 'em up). I don't know if the PC Works setup uses the same cube speakers as these Cambridge (I think it does...) but if they do, it shouldn't even be a question of which to get. By the way, if you're interested, I might be willing to unload these Advent Powered Partners for very little. The treble output is great, but the bass can be overloaded. They originally sold for $250.00, but right now they're just gathering dust. Check them out at GameSpot's review: http://img.gamespot.com/hardware/sound/speakers/av570.html ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Actually a W2K FAQ sounds like a good idea... The first item should be W2K, Voodoo, and Q3A, the second W2K, TnT and Q3A, and the third item should be W2K, and SoundBlaster Live! Concerning overclocking... I just don't have the time to test it out on my Celery 466... and I can't afford any great length of down time that might result from overclocking incorrectly.

Just a thought, but have you approached Symantec with the issue? I found a memory leak in their Norton AntiVirus 2000 product, reported it via their user forums, and within 3 days a new release of NAV 2000 was available via LiveUpdate that corrected the memory leak. Symantec seems to be one of the (few) companies that is working with people and Win2K to have their products ready for primetime when Win2K is released. Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Are you (YuppieScum) and I the only people who don't overclock their CPUs or TnT2 chips? I feel like a second citizen running my Celery at it's Indollar, I mean InDell, I mean Intel, rated 466MHz speed. And I don't even have my TnT2 overclocked... Probably, you do overclock and I really am the only person who runs the cpu at it's rated speed... Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

One of the easiest ways to test RAM chips is by switching the order of the RAM chips. I've had machines where 64MB was installed with 2 32MB chips and errors only happened when one of the chips was installed in the first slot. After spending some money on some diagnostic hardware and software, I indeed found that one chip was bad. What does the above mean for you? To see if the issue is motherboard or memory related, you need to eliminate one item from the overall equation. You have 128MB RAM that seems to be working (either 1 128MB DIMM or 2 64MB DIMMS.) Well, pull out the functioning memory and put in the memory that you were going to add. If it works without problems, then it might be the slot that the extra memory pops into or some other motherboard issue. Without removing the previous memory, try putting back into the motherboard the original memory. If it fails, then you most likely have a bad motherboard or there is a conflict between the type of memory - did you mix ECC memory with non-ECC memory or mix buffered memory with non-buffered memory? In terms of just testing the memory, you won't have much luck finding someone with the right equipment - either hardware or software. The hardware for testing DIMMS runs in the $3K-$10K range. Software testing is usually substantially cheaper (my testing software cost around $500) but to fully test 32MB RAM, it takes approximately a week (yes, a full week) - even on a fast system. (The software changes each bit in the chip in sequence and after changing a bit will check the entirety of the rest of the chip to ensure that no other bits changed - this type of testing results in exponential testing times... the larger the memory, the longer the test.) I just noticed that you said "crashes sometimes..." The key to finding what the problem is: finding out what is common between the "sometimes" that the computer crashed. What programs are running, what services are running, etc. Also check the event logs under Administrative Tools in the Control Panel. It may not be hardware - but then again, it may be. Happy Troubleshooting.... (what I do for a living...) Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions [This message has been edited by ByronT (edited 10-12-1999).]

I'm doing upgrades with the pre-release stuff, but will do a fesh install with the "real" thing. Regards...

Port 21 is the "Well Known" (IANA assigned) port for FTP. It sounds as if you have IIS running FTP services in the background. Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Here's my setup: Tyan S1856 BX mbd, Celeron/466MHz, 128MB, Diamond V770 Ultra (TNT2), Diamond MX300, Intel Pro/100+ NIC, USR 56K modem, BusLogic BT-946C SCSI PCI, 8.4GB EIDE drive, Plextor 8/20 CDR (SCSI), Plextor Ultra 40X CD (SCSI), Plextor 12/20X CD (SCSI), Iomega Jaz 1GB, Iomega 100MB Zip, HP ScanJet 4100Cse (USB). All running under RC3 with generic MS drivers(Build 2183). (NOTE: I'm not bold enough to try out the beta NVidia detonator drivers cause this is my production/money making machine...) I think that's all that's relevant.... Anyway, with MS's CD Deluxe player, I get clean audio off of any audio CDs (sounds incredible on my Cambridge SoundWorks DT2550 setup...), as do I with CDMax - a CDDB capable player, but with Plextor MVP 2000 player, the music "flutters" when playing a CD. It's not really a skipping noise but more like a light stuttering. Has anyone else run into CD playing software that acts funny? And what would be the possible reasons for this? Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Hmmm, well, the stuttering is caused by the Plextor audio player doing some conversion before playing. The only reason that I say this is that the volume for that CD player is now dependent on the "Wave" device in the volume controls. Now I want to figure out why Plextor does the conversion when just playing - or would this be digital extraction happening? Regards...

Has anyone been to the Windows Update website recently? I installed RC3 the other day (I think Monday...) and I'm not sure if I have visited Windows Update since then. But now that I have, I noticed that MS has six new device drivers listed for download. And each one is versioned 20.01.2183.00 and is listed as "MICROSOFT INTERNAL TEST ONLY..." Just FYI, the site's addy is: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.htm?page=productupdates Regards... ------------------ J. Byron Todd Computer Consultant byron@toddcomp.com Todd Computer Solutions

Just because you have a previous version of Win2K does not mean that you are part of Microsoft's official Beta program. Meaning that unless you are a part of the official beta testing group (and you would already know this if you were, because you would have that beta id and password), that the only way to get another build of Win2K is to find someone who is an official beta tester or find someone who has posted links to the latest build. As for me, I'm running RC3 and the only reason that I got it is that my programmer joined the Microsoft Developer Network as a Universal Subscriber... I get everything but the Microsoft games now... As a PS... there might be somebody who goes by the handle chameleon that might be accessing Build 2194 and might be able to provide links to Build 2194... Though I wouldn't really know...