DrSchmoe

I'm sorry, this is really freaking funny. Basically, what Microsoft is saying is that I could crash computers if I had a hostile custom program running on an IrDA device (Pocket PC, Palm, whatever). IrDA has a reception range of only about 1 meter so I would need to run into their office and zap their computer. Gee, like the person sitting there wouldn't be slightly peeved by the incident? And how did they figure this problem out? Did Steve Ballmer go running into Bill's office: "Hey, check this out, I have something cool to show you..." Look at the security advisory below my comments. I especially love #2. "or be able to transmit the IRDA packets through reflection directly to the victim's IRDA port" So, if I get myself an extremely high powered IR emitter and a very complex system of reflectors I can theoretically sit in my office and simultaneously crash all the computers in the office. Cool... Sounds like a challenge. ------------------- Mitigating factors: 1.) The attack would require that an attacker's machine be within range of the victim's IRDA device, usually within arm's length. 2.) The attack would require that an attacker's machine's IRDA port have either a direct line of sight to the victim's machine, or be able to transmit the IRDA packets through reflection directly to the victim's IRDA port. 3.) To the best of our knowledge, this cannot be used to run malicious code on the user's system.

I occasionally get on a soap box, and thought that I was overdue Anyway, I don't know how many of the "regulars" of this board are pirates? 50%, 25%, less, more? But I sometimes get the sneaking suspicion that a lot of people with pirated copies come here for help. I guess they figure they can find some knowledgeable people, and not have to worry about dealing with MS. I replied to a dead-giveaway message earlier. He was running a W98 and Win2k Advanced Server dual boot. Why the heck would you do that? Is there any logical reason whatsoever to run multi-thousand dollar software at home? Did he need fail-over clustering for his Quake3 server? Just so clan "ScrewMS" wouldn't lose their game? Which wouldn't work anyway since Q3 isn't MSCS aware. Or maybe he *was* legit, and he thought he needed an emergency copy of Windows 98 running on his 8 CPU SQL server. (Yeah, sure) No pirate could ever need Advanced Server. Secondly, if they are actually a developer and need 2k Sever, then their business can buy it for them (or buy it yourself and take a tax write off; assuming you are in the US). Is anyone else is as frustrated as I am? Might I suggest a course of action? If an obvious pirate posts asking for help, politely tell them that support is not available for users with pirated software. Maybe include simple directions to purchase a legit copy. If an adult, they can afford to purchase Win2K Pro, if they are younger (i.e. a student) they can still afford to purchase Win2K Pro. JourneyEd (www.journeyed.com) sells academic priced software, and they have Pro for $120 and Server (complete version, 5 user) for $399. If this is still too much money, get off the computer and go cut some lawns. Sorry if my tone is a bit harsh, but I can only take so many messages of "I can't my SB Live working on Win2k Advanced Server!" That, and my firm develops software, so acts of piracy aren't very favorable around here. </SOAPBOX> Comments? Suggestions? Criticism?

Yes. I have a TV Wonder and Radeon combo working perfectly in Windows 2000. I am guessing that your GeForce 2 is the problem. The existing drivers are *beta* only. As such I am guessing that they didn't do a lot of testing with non-ATI hardware. Don't do what is mentioned under the hardware section. Those comments were posted before these drivers were posted. Make sure you are using these drivers from ATI: http://www.ati.com/na/pages/spdrivers/mmc71tw03.exe

Actually, AGP has been iffy at best. Many tests indicate that AGP 2x is only slightly better than 1x, and 4x is only slightly better than 2x (but the margin is even smaller). The total bandwidth of AGP is actually quite pathetic when compared to local video memory. AGP was more promising when it was first introduced circa 97 (and video cards only had ~500MB/sec memory). With those early cards AGP 2x was the same bandwidth as the local memory (1:1 ratio). Now, the ratio is 1:6, not to mention the main memory needs to be used for other things as well (sound, AI, etc). In reality, PCI video cards yield very close to the same performance of their AGP brethren (although hardly anyone releases PCI boards to test). If you are using a program that requires more memory than present on the video card, you either want to use texture compression, or a lower detail level. AGP texturing limits performance to the extreme. As for the original question..... You would likely not see much benefit at lower resolutions. If your CPU is only capable of delivering geometry data at 30fps, then you will never go above 30fps regardless of whichever card you are using. However, there is a caveat. Geometry data is not resolution dependant. If your CPU can give you 30fps at 640x480, then it can give you 30fps at 1600x1200, ***uming of course that your video card can do 30fps at 1600 resolution. Granted, this is an over simplification, but don't expect to get too much more speed at lower resolutions. Essentially, you will extend your max playable resolution.

Here's a question for you... What is the point in writing "ass*holes"? If you are going to include the "*" wouldn't it be smarter to say "as*holes"? Sorry... It's Wednesday, I couldn't resist

Seriously??????????? You do know Win2K uses almost 50MB of ram at boot? Some of this can be paged out, but with 20MB you would likely kill your hard disk in a short amount of time. Advice: buy a lot more memory. [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 05 October 2000).]

Ronin: No reason to appologize if their computers don't work! This is after all a technical discussion. Granted, it is highly unlikely to see someone visit discussions if everything works... That just peeves off all the people with problems. "Yeah, I just wanted to say that everything is running perfectly, sorry I can't help..." Don't you hate those posts??? I am in the same boat, my SB Live works with the exception of Star Trek Armada, but that game is buggy beyond belief. I don't blame Creative for Activision's screw-ups. Some people also have legitimate problems. It seems the anti-Creative people are the ones that previously purchased an Aureal board. They vent on Creative, because Aureal isn't taking their calls! I guess this was off topic, but it's not like this topic was going anywhere to begin with.

Actually, to the best of my knowledge, LW4 is already available. Supposedly the new 5.1 cards come with the LW4 CD. If anyone buys a 5.1 it would be very kind if they posted the drivers. I am looking for outside confirmation but haven't received any yet. Also, LW4 drops support for 95 and NT4. Creative went pure WDM so LW4 will only work on 98/Me/2k. They may add support in the future, but somehow I doubt it. The problem with creative is that they make a lot of products and spread themselves thin in the driver department. If they focused on WDM drivers only, their quality should be significantly better. Granted this might peeve some people off with legacy hardware.

Everyone has opinions, and it is indeed possible to have the wrong opinion. If Win2k isn't running well, either you have less than 128MB ram, an old BIOS, or old/non-supported hardware. The system requirements are steep but new OSes tend to push the limits. Try running Windows 95 on a 486 with 4MB of RAM and you will see what I mean. I can understand that someone might prefer Win98 (cost, not enough storage/memory, etc), but saying "windows [98] ran faster, no caching problems, no more physical memory dumps" is almost perverse. But that isn't what interested me the most... Quote: Originally posted by BladeRunner: Win2000 is no safer at hiding your [censored] (not that I have to, parents don't use computers and other half is cool ) unless you encrypt your data. Best not let mummy & daddy use your computer eh? Someone else pointed this part out before... So fill me in on this arrangement. Your other half lets you keep [censored]? Is this also her computer? Does she keep *her* [censored] on it? Interesting... I guess I have a tendency for finding more conservative relationships. [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 03 October 2000).]

Has anyone tried those newer SB Live drivers yet? Here is the source of my confusion. The LW3 drivers from Creative are versions: 5.12.01.3107 The Gateway drivers are: 5.12.01.3041 The Creative drivers are early May, whereas the Gateway drivers are June. The Gateway drivers are also a few KB larger. Conesquentially, I am a little hesitant to install them without fully knowing what they do/fix/enable/disable. I could test for myself, but it is already the end of the week, and I am getting lazy!

No it does not. SP1 updates the cache files as well.

SMART is a technology that can detect defects in your hard drive, long before they become a problem. Basically, it is a diagnostic protocol for your drives to talk to your motherboard. In order for SMART to work, your drives would need to support it, which I am sure your ATA/66 drives support (don't know about that Quantum, depends how old it is). The control to enable SMART would be in your BIOS. I am not exactly sure where. They may also call it something slightly different like "Hard drive diagnostic reporting." or the like. I had an Amprton board for my old Pentium, but I only use Asus now. That company has way too many defects and problems.

http://www.aureal.com/newa3d/download/drivers.asp Although, there are no "new" drivers since Aureal is essentially closed. The 2/17 drivers work, albiet with significant problems. If you need future support, I would recommend getting a Live. The ESS Canyon 3D is also a good choice, but their driver support is fairly abysmal.

Call Gateway! A Gateway system might not be as glamorous as some of the other systems, but you have a couple benefits. 1.) Some of the best support in the industry. 2.) More through compatibility testing than piecemeal systems. Most likely you need motherboard/BIOS updates, but I don't know what those updates would be (I don't use Athlons). Also, try going to http://www.3dchipset.com/ and downloading the 5.32 detonator drivers.

SP1 addresses some reliability issues, numerous memory leaks, compatibility, STOP errors and the like. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q260/9/10.ASP That goes to a *complete* list of the bugs fixed... However, I know there are additional fixes not on the list. For instance, D3D mode didn't work in Diablo 2 before SP1, and now it does. Actually, that could fall under a different line-item, but I didn't feel like reading about the 250 bugs... All in all, the Service Pack will be more beneficial to server operators, however anyone can benefit from the security updates and other misc. enhancements.

Wow?!? *sigh*

Heheh. I am sorry, that's funny! Whether or not he has the computer configured to reboot on STOP error doesn't prevent the crash from occuring in the first place! Anyway... Are you using a 64MB Gladiac? There are some known problems with 64MB cards, and Blizzard's recommendation is to use 2D mode until the problem is solved. I am not sure whose fault this is, so you may need to wait for future NVidia drivers, or a new patch from Blizzard. Also look if there is a new BIOS available for your video card... Earlier GeForce BIOSes had some minor problems.

105 is an okay temperature for your mainboard. Generally the safe range extends well beyond that, however the boards have a much greater headroom than other components. Generally, I like to keep the exhaust from the case within 20 degrees of ambient. The directories are perfectly safe to remove if you are certain your OS is operating properly. Depending on what you did, those directories were likely created by Windows Update. If you so desired, you could roll back to the original Win2K install by uninstalling SP1, and then uninstalling those hotfixes.

Oooh. 13 seconds... My gosh man, how impatient are you? I have servers that take more than 30 minutes to boot. Consider yourself lucky. The DevLdr application is used regardless of the presence of the LW3 tools. I don't recommend messing with it because it is a Ring3 (application level) arbiter to kernel mode drivers (Ring0). In other words, killing DevLdr can interfere with the kernel operation of the OS (if it makes calls to the non-existent application). This is a bad thing. Rarely do hardware vendors include superfluous additions to their drivers. For this reason, if LW3 is causing problems it would be better to fall back to the basic WDM. This is often better than tweaking with vendor provided drivers. Tweaking can cause system instability. Chances are you wouldn't be using Windows 2000 unless that was a priority.

Don't screw with the DevLdr application. Essentially it is an arbiter between Windows and the advanced features of the card. Messing around with DevLdr can destabilize your system. DevLdr acts as the mixer interface, so depending on your setup you will lose volume control if you don't load DevLdr. The way DevLdr is written, most of it will be paged out into virtual memory, so you really don't need to worry about it using 2MB. Also, the memory it requires will change and normally hovers around a much lesser amount. If memory is an issue to the point where you are concerned about the usage. I would either use the Basic WDM drivers on the 2K CD, or purchase additional memory.

*sigh* That is false. Try quoting an official press release, rather than some other BBS member making things up. Here let me try one: Germany bought by Microsoft (MSFT).

This solely depends on how much you value quality sound or require EAX (Creative's D3D variation). In most instances on board sound is generally decent. However, no offence, but your speakers aren't of the level to distinguish output quality between onboard, and an add-in card. The decision to keep your SB Live rests largely on the quality of your headphones. If your headphones >$40, then the SB Live would deliver noticeably cleaner audio, otherwise, stick with onboard sound. Honestly, it might be in your better interests to take back the Live and invest in a better set of speakers. Although, the problem with *all* (and I do mean *all*) computer speakers is that they are of a lower quality than typical home audio equipment. It is a long argument, and I don't feel like typing it, but take my word for it. Generally though, you will get the best audio performance from a company who creates products primary for the home audio market (i.e. JBL, Klipsch, etc). Another thing to consider is that the Athlon platform is more prone to hardware conflicts. Specifically, there have been incidents of NVidia users having problems (mostly GeForce 1), and some problems with the SB Live line of audio cards (mostly popping during DirectSound streams). Aureal was worse off, but most people are trading up to Lives' since the demise of Aureal. For this reason, it is advantageous to use the onboard audio since it has been extensively tested and less prone to random problems (although much less feature rich). I hope this helps...

It is usually a bad sign when you get flamed by the moderator!

Ah, but you are forgetting something. SP1 isn't late. MS never announced a release date except "sometime this summer."

MS never mentioned a release date, except to say that it is "on track for summer delivery." Several news sites have said "soon," but as far as I can tell there was nothing to substantiate claims of the 17th (never quoted actual Microsoft sources). Hence it could be any time this summer. Microsoft could be deliberately waiting until the official release of Datacenter for concurrent launch. It could also be undergoing "extended QA" due to the "critical" nature of this update.