DrSchmoe

Woohoo.. "Senior Member." Now all I need to do is post another 80 replies until I am "The Man." =)

That actually sounds like it could be hardware. We had the same problem on a machine here and replaced the chip, motherboard, and memory. The actual problem (after I performed further diagnosis) was faulty L1 cache on the CPU. Although, on average, the motherboard is more prone to problems. This problem wasn't noticable in 9x, which I assume might have something to do with how the 2K kernel may use the 32bit registers. Another potential problem is the power supply. If your voltage isn't constant you might want to try a power source that does line conditioning (UPS etc). Hopefully we are talking about a configuration issue, but hardware problems aren't *that* rare, and unfortunately they are a much greater pain to fix

Never mind. I figured it out. The "PaintDesktopVersion" needs to be a DWORD value in the registry. Since I had modified that value before, it was a string, not a DWORD. After converting it to a DWORD it worked just fine. I tested on an RC3 server to see if I could disable it, and I couldn't. I guess Microsoft was just being stubborn.

So how do I get the Build number off my desktop? I know the "Active Desktop" work-around, but that stifles performace and degrades the image quality of desktop wallpaper. It is a little annoying that Microsoft thinks we need to be reminded that we are using Windows 2K. Like I am suddenly going to forget what OS I am using??? *grumble grumble*

I had to post this message since it is the 50th in the thread! I couldn't give someone else the chance

Bravo, I am in complete agreement with Rogue. I am highly pleased with 2K. I have DVD running, my Live works decently with the WDM, and every one of my games works flawlessly. Sure, better AGP support would be nice, but for the moment I get to blame ATi for that. The install was a snap. My office machines were clean installs (except the servers), at home I was too lazy to reinstall so I decided to upgrade. It literally took 3-clicks to go from 98 to 2K. It was easier than 95 to 98, so I don’t understand why peaje is arguing his point. I would assume the OS is s decent choice for novice users; the wizards and explanations are much better than anything in the 9x series. I am hard pressed to find a reason why MS would release Millennium. I can't imagine 2K would take more than a few months (maybe six) to modify for consumer (i.e. Neptune) release. Hopefully in the future, MS will focus on making the NT Kernel more reliable. It roughly as stable as Linux, but we aren't at Mainframe reliability yet. Windows NT magazine has some interesting insights on this point. If you haven't picked it up, I would highly recommend the "Windows NT Magazine: Windows 2000 Special." Even though they were working predominantly with RC1, they still have some interesting insights as well as some fairly low level discussions on the Kernel, etc. Not to knock on Peaje, but I find his comments rather funny. No offence intended, I just disagree. I can’t comprehend why he doesn’t think 2K has been designed for multimedia and entertainment. We have a Gateway Destination in our conference room, and I loaded it with 2K. The machine does far better on 2K than it did on 98. Furthermore, most of our clients are still in the dark about 2K, so when they see it, it helps further substantiate the “cutting edge” feel that my firm attempts to portray. We always get questions when people see the login screen. Why would I be more pleased with Neptune? It will use the same drivers and software as 2K; the predominant difference is that it will be “dumbed” up for consumer users. Every *single* thing that Neptune can do will also be available in 2K (identical hardware and software support). Which is where my confusion lies… Neptune and 2K will be almost identical, so how can you possibly argue that 2K is not for multimedia and entertainment???? But then again I seriously doubt my arguments will faze Mr. Gibraltar

I originally posted this in "Hardware" but I thought I would do a repost over here... Well, Good news! I installed 2195, and lo and behold my key-sticking problems went away with Quake 3. I used DXDiag, and checked the DLLs, but they were still identical to 7.0. Whatever was causing the problem wasn't DX7. I am still not sure if it works flawlessly, my "MOUSEWHEELUP" and "MOUSEWHEELDOWN" are still intermitent, but all other functions seem okay. I played for roughly 4 hours, and had no sticking.

Well, Good news! I installed 2195, and lo and behold my key-sticking problems went away with Quake 3. I used DXDiag, and checked the DLLs, but they were still identical to 7.0. Whatever was causing the problem wasn't DX7. I am still not sure if it works flawlessly, my "MOUSEWHEELUP" and "MOUSEWHEELDOWN" are still intermitent, but all other functions seem okay.

Hey Seldzar, MS might program all their games. I think Ensemble and many of the other companies are wholly owned subsidiaries... But I could be wrong Just like EA owns most of the companies it publishes for (e.g. Westwood) Argh!! Those graphical smileys are peeving me off. I miss ASCII. [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 17 December 1999).]

Well, I'll be darned. I only thought 2195.3 was circulating. I guess Microsoft has started to assign their final builds in some other way. You know what always annoyed me? I wish they assigned unique builds to service packs. NT4 SP6 is still 1381. Honestly, how many times was it recompiled? Maybe that would be impossible, because then you wouldn't know where to begin a new product, but at least they could do a sub-build. Unless that’s what they have started to do... By the time Win2k SP6 is out, we might be at 2195.4192 or some inane number. Sorry for the incoherent rambling. I guess it is one of those days where I would rather do anything but work Oh, before I forget, bravo to Mousepad on the piracy issue. The idea that someone would steal something I had wrote would really upset me. I can understand what Microsoft must feel, multiplied by 40 or 50 million. If someone *really* wants a free OS, go download Linux. At this point, the only people entitled to 2195 would be technical beta testers (the 120 day version), MSDN members (full version, once it is released), and the new preview program. Heck, if it really is too expensive, pre-order the academic version. I think it is priced at $99 for the full "non-upgrade" version. Which reminds me. I thought MS made a promise about immediate availability of 2K to MSDN members. I will count myself lucky if I can download it before Jan 1. [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 17 December 1999).]

About the performance of 2K. It *should* be faster than Millennium for games. The issue is that all the drivers are not optimized, and to this point, I don't think any of them support AGP. Hopefully the manufacturers will have their act together by February. But knowing all of them, I won't get my hopes up (especially my beloved ATi). The lack of drivers for the Live doesn't bother me too much; I have Bose up front, and some horrid Cambridge SBS 50s in the rear (I try to avoid 4 speakers). The EAX is nice, but I haven't been playing all that many first person games that I would miss it. I found an odd bug with the Live WDM: It supports CD Digital, however, there is no way to control the output. I muted the standard CD Audio, and viola CD Digital was playing. I guess that is a halfway good sign, because as I recall, Creative had some big problems getting CD Digital to work with the initial 9x and NT drivers (many memory leaks). I am also getting confused with Millennium. Many reliable sources are saying that they are dumping it, and just as many say that it is still actively in development. I have this strange theory that Microsoft will end up releasing Millennium as "Windows 2000 Personal." If they did anything else, people may be flocking to Win2K Pro with the confusion. I think Microsoft realizes that they have some marketing problems, so I am really curious how they are going to dig out of the hole. And I have more. I couldn't resist... Just saw this on Microsoft.com about Win2K. http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/guide/professional/overview/reliable/ Quote: With its support for Plug and Play, Windows 2000 lets users easily add hardware devices such as scanners, DVD players, and speakers without rebooting. When was the last time you plugged in a set of speakers, only to need to reboot your computer??? They should have added: "With its amazing relaibility, Windows 2000 Professional will even operate when you are using your dishwasher!" ... time to get to work, and off my soapbox [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 17 December 1999).]

That was pretty darn succinct... That should be an auto-responder whenever the word "Live" appears in the forum [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 17 December 1999).]

When Microsoft compiles, often, things go horribly awry and the resulting build is flawed (crash during compile, etc). 2195.3 is the same source as 2195, but it may have minor fixes for issues that appeared during the build. The source identifies itself as 2195, and the 2195 in the beta directory is actually 2195.3 (2195.2 and 2195.1 may not be bootable). The .x is assigned by the build team, not the development team. I hope that makes sense, because I managed to confuse myself Good luck to all of you taking finals. As much as I miss school, I don't miss the exams!

Whoa. Calm down Jimmy. I wasn't directing that at you. I am using 2183 and was really wondering what was different. I was just happy to hear about the early MSDN distribution. Besides, I never directly or indirectly called anyone by an improper name. The reason for editing my remarks: I do a lot of editing and writing. If I see a typo, it drives me nuts until I correct it. Try publishing for a living and see how you feel about correct grammar and punctuation. The message about God: My beliefs are personal and I consider it immoral to force them upon others, but it is still unnerving when someone begs the Almighty for help with a computer. Consider it roughly analogous to my making improper remarks about your parents. The "not to be critical one": I believe was in a thread where everyone was being critical. By its very nature, any difference of opinion is inherently critical. DrSchmoe

Woohoo If that Wugnet article is accurate, it should be any minute now. The MSDN site doesn't mention the Win2K release so hopefully their press release will coincide with the download offering (probably wishful thinking). Gee, I wonder what they fixed in the 12 builds and 30 days since RC3.

The next question is: "When will it be up for MSDN members!!!" Based on their usual lag, I am assuming mid to late next week. Hopefully they will make me happy though, and put it up sooner. I guess on the positive side, I don't need to buy it because the MSDN membership already covers that [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 15 December 1999).]

Or, You can continue to use the default WDM drivers, which are: a.) more stable (esp. for SMP) b.) include direct sound (LW3 NT does not) c.) doesn't screw up power management d.) doesn't require invasive reconfiguration of your hardware. As I see it, 4 speakers and EAX is not worth the effort of the 4 hassles above. I will wait till Creative releases LW3 for Win2k, which, knowing their track record, I expect to be in March or April.

Wow, it is great! 2195 features DirectX 8, Internet Explorer 6.0, fixes all the bugs we have ever seen in a Microsoft OS, and uses only 4MB of memory! (Not to mention the 386 minimum requirement)

True, However, when MS initially planned the convergence it was to increace their margins. At that time, I seriously doubt they ever saw a competitve threat. I think scrapping Millennium and their reorganization was more reactive to Linux. Perhaps they pushed up the timetable a bit. Besides, we already know that the system requirements for Neptune will be significantly steeper than Millennium (which I am assuming based on the requirements of 2K). A lot of consumers might not be happy since their machines will not be "worthy." At least 9x runs fairly well on low end pentiums (non-MMX, assuming 32MB min.) Anyway, has anyone tried Win 3.11 lately? I installed it to have some fun. I think I booted in 2-3 seconds. By the time my CRT was warm, the desktop was already up. It makes me want a solid state drive =) DrSchmoe [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 15 December 1999).]

Not to be rude, but I am pretty certain God has better things to do than fix your computer system. Make sure you have "assign IRQ to VGA" set in your BIOS (look into a BIOS upgrade as well). Furthermore, use the drivers included with Win2k. The 3.6x drivers are still too tempramental to debug with. Next, try booting into safe mode. Your monitor may be incorrectly set. Select a different monitor from device manager. Were you using a laptop? I have seen several running 2K where the LCD panel never comes on. Boot with an external monitor and switch over to LCD after you are in the GUI. Granted, in this situation you probably wouldn't have a TnT2, so I guess this last paragraph was moot... Good luck, DrSchmoe

Sure, Neptune will be the convergence product, but the reason for scrapping Millennium doesn't necessarily have to do with WDM support (that would be thinking like a techie...) Rather, now that Jim Allchin is in charge of the unified Windows division he is looking to keep development and operating costs at a minimum. Maintaining two code bases doesn't do that. Sticking to one code base also helps improve quality of the remaining product by concentrating talent. In essence, Microsoft is starting to "circle the wagons" at the competitive threat of Linux (many claim potential DOJ remedies are the reason for the reorganization, but I dispute that). Furthermore, hardware vendors can focus on developing one set of drivers, thereby increasing driver quality and the perceived value of Windows. Fact: MS wants IHVs to write *stable* drivers =) In theory, WDM drivers do not require recompiling to run on 2K or 9x, however, this only works for the sound and printer subsystems. WDM driver support for video was not included in any current non-beta iteration of 9x (to the best of my knowledge). Back to work... DrSchmoe [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 15 December 1999).]

How many times do people need to say "this is a beta" before the concept of a Beta OS sinks in? Not to be critical, but everyone has these problems which is the result of drivers, and naturally, it somehow ends up being Microsoft's fault. I would assume it will probably be April before we see decent drivers from all the big firms. My personal favorite is the LiveWare hack. Everyone seems to use it, but in the process, you end up tossing DirectSound. At least the WDM drivers provide hooks, whereas the NT4 drivers do not. Personally, I opted for the WDM drivers. As for video cards, to the best of my knowledge, NVidia is the only firm to provide a passable driver (which has yet to support AGP). Which is a shame since I have a Rage 128 =) There also seems to be this crowd of Millennium fans out there. Which is quite funny since the general consensus is that development is being discontinued. See this article for more: http://www.winntmag.com/Articles/Content/7775_01.html . There are other articles, but this was the most handy. Anyway, I just wanted to stop lurking and spout off. My hair was beginning to recede from the stress of reading. DrSchmoe [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 15 December 1999).]