BladeRunner

You certainly wont be disapointed with a Parhelia - it really is a quality piece of kit. 2D quality is unbeatable and it performs OK in 3D too. Let's be honest, it's got to be a better option than a GF FX with it's built in vacuum cleaner.

I think the poster was interested in smaller independent retailers who might actually have this particular board in stock. Currently all Granite Bay boards are rarer than Hens Teeth - but for some reason a lot of smaller retailers have managed to get their hands on them when the larger chains are still waiting. I was lucky enough to get my P4G8X-Deluxe almost two weeks ago and it is a fantastic board - just bloody difficult to find anywhere.

Unfortunately gone are the days when beta testers could get their hands on Alpha products. When I beta tested Windows 95 I had some very early alpha products and they were quite impressive to see. I think the reason behind this is that during the alpha stage the product does tend to be very flakey and they really aren't interested in any input - its broken and then know it! Once it hits beta that is a different story, the core coding is done and that is the point they will be looking for user input. Once you are rigistered you usually get invited back for further beta's. Since I beta tested Win95 there hasn't been a new OS that I haven't beta tested. What was also great was that MS sent me a free copy of the full retail version of WinXP Professional after it was released as a "thanks" which always makes you feel appreciated.

I was as surprised as the next person!! I was using a USR External V90 (flashed to V92) modem. The connection speeds were a rather constand 40k or 42.6k It has been this way for years and I've always assumed bad lines where I am. Over the weekend I was building a PC for the girlfriend, her old machine had an internal modem and I'd sourced a Diamond Internal V92 one - this is a true hardware PCI modem, not WinModem or Software. After I'd set her machine up of course I wanted to download the critical updates so I hit the net. First attempt to connect to the net, connected at 44k. A few more tests after reboots, 46k, 48k, 50k. I'm now averaging around 48k and the only thing changed is USR External modem removed, Diamond Internal Hardware modem added. Yer ok, compared to those lucky people with broadband this may seem like nothing, but my online experience does feel that bit better now.

There are 2 main patches that you will want to make for GTA3. The first is the file you download from MS which updates a DirectDraw file. Incidentally if you are running WinXP SP1 & DirectX 9 this update file doesn't work, so I can only assume this issue was fixed in DirectX 9. The second file is the 1.1 patch for the actual game. You might have some luck downloading that from here: http://www.take2games.com/index.php?p=support_patches

I think we should retitle this thread "New parts I've just bought" and then we can all post as we buy new things. Hell, keep the thread going for a couple of years and the first few pages of posts will be very historic Anyway, my purchases over the last week or so: ASUS P4G8X-Deluxe motherboard (Granite Bay) Western Digital WD1200JB HD (120GB, 8MB Cache) Diamond Internal V92 modem (For some reason my dial-up speed has now increased from 42k to 49k-50k, all very strange).

I'm currently using a 64MB GF4 Ti4200. Although this is a good card (and it was a free upgrade from my GF3 Ti200) I was keeping my eye on the next generation - true DirectX 9 cards. I've never actually been that much of an NVidia fan, however I've felt forced to take that route since I left Matrox a while ago. Even when NVidia rulled the waves I went for a Matrox G400 MAX and I'm pleased I did, I rate it as a much better card than what NVidia had out at the time. When I purchased my GF3 I also had the option of the Radeon 8500 and went for the NVidia option due to ATI's lack of driver writing ability. Sure NVidia had some terrible driver releases, but ATI's were even worse. NVidia appeared to be the de facto card to go for, like the word "Soundblaster" was once the standard all other sound cards attempted to be compatible with I felt that all graphics cards were attempting to be NVidia compatible. The GF FX has been delayed and then delayed again and even now you cannot actually go and buy one. They 6 month product cycle went to pot and the best they could do for Christmas was hit us with some AGP 8X versions of their existing cards, we all know the AGP 8X is really a waste of time and not that many people even had the motehrboards to support this extra bandwidth. So now the covers are off, we can see what we've all been waiting for all these months from the wonderful people over at NVidia and disapointment is really the best word here. I was considering an ATI 9700 however I think I'll wait to see what ATI have got up their sleeves for their next release. Word on the street is that ATI will paper release their next card on the GF FX release date to spoil their party (as NVidia has attempted to do to ATI numerous times in the past). If NVidia don't watch out we could well be looking at another 3DFX fiasco here. There was a time when 3DFX rules everything, nobody wanted anything by any other manufacturer and their future looked very rosey indeed. Up until a little while ago NVidia held that crown with 3 stunning releases, GF2, GF3 & GF4. The next leader of the pack will be ATI and NVidia are very much going to find themselves in second place for a while - let's hope the ATI driver writers don't ruin the good work the designers have done and release lackluster drivers.

Look before I post this message I do want to say that I am not attempting to make light of the subject it is touching. I feel this was a terrible thing to happen and couldn't wish it upon anybody, but maybe somebody will enlighten me to why the following is happening and under what grounds they think they will succeed? I guess more importantly what implications it might have for future cases in the US. This is a story relating to the "Sniper Killings" in the US last year. As I said above I think that whole affair was terrible and I do hope that those found guilty of the crime are dealt with firmly. However on the radio a few minutes ago I heard a story. It was saying that two relatives of two of the victims are taking two places to court and sueing them. First they are taking the manufacturer of the guns to court. Secondly they are taking the establishment that sold the said guns to court too. I am sorry but these cases shouldn't even make it off the ground. How can you hold the makers of a gun responsible for these killings? Is this any different to say the relative of a car accident victim taking first Ford to court for making the car and then the dealer to court for selling it? I'm not on about defective cars at fault, I'm on about a car used to knock somebody down, should the maker of that car find themselves in court? In the UK people are starting to take people to court over silly things. There seems to be no such thing as an accident in this world any more. I do seem to remember that somebody might have a fall in the street, they would get up and say "Oh silly me, I must be more carefull" and walk on, not "Great, how much can I make for this one?" The UK is getting worse but I still don't think we are in the same league as the US yet. It can be only a matter of time and if this is the kind of thing we have got to look forward to it really makes me feel a little bit sick. Something needs to be done about this "blame society" we are fast approaching. Judges also need to stop awarding crazy sums of money for what are in effect accidents, maybe then people will stop taking anything and everything to a court of law.

Oh indeed it is always the lawyers who win. I don't know how many of you know about the case surrounding the .biz domain names. Basically to stop people pre-registering hundreds of them, so there would be plenty to go around and people wouldn't attempt to take "all the best names" the registry in charge of .biz came up with a cunning plan. Charge everyone $2 for each pre-registration. That really isn't too much but if you were attempting to pre-register hundreds it would be a bit costly, however your $2 didn't guarantee you getting the domain, every pre-registration was put in a "hat" first name out got the domain. A few people complained about this, they didn't think it was fair. In the end they took the case to court claiming this was an illegal lottery. They won and the registry were forced to refund everybody's $2. Normal web users loose, all the best .biz domains have gone. Registry loose a lot, forced to refund for lots of pre-registrations and probably pay court costs. People who bought case to court get very little, probably just their $2 back for each pre-registration. Lawyers get big fat fees from all involved. There is a place for lawyers, namely the bottom of the ocean wearing concrete shoes.

I must admit it is not a brand of memory that I've ever heard of before. It will probably be fine as most "unbranded" memory is major on third anyway.

Well if you want real stability you'd order the RAM from Dell too as it will be tried and tested stuff. However I'm assuming you are not too keen on the prices from Dell. Branded RAM seems to be much of a muchness with regards stability. I've used Kingston, Samsung and currently Crucial and never had a problem with any of them.

As far as I'm aware no - well if it is then somebody at MS has forgotten to send me a copy Gone are the days unfortunately when the beta testers used to be able to get their hands on alpha copies. I remember seeing Win95 in alpha and that truely was a sight to behold.

No. If you are an official beta tester then you will be first sent a beta copy when they are available and there after will have access to the MS beta site to download new builds as they become available. If you are not part of the beta test then you'll have to wait until its release.

...and the fun begins again I've still got my workstation & server at work ready for the first beta release that I used for the SP3 beta testing. I hope that SP4 is as stable in it's first beta as SP3 was. I really didn't have many problems with SP3 at all through the beta stages (well until about halfway through when they managed to break loads of things over two builds).

Your friend has made a very good choice. The Parhelia is a lovely card, I feel it is slightly overpriced for what it is - I was very disappointed when it first came out as the specifications of it promised a lot more. Saying that I've got one in my system here at work and it really is a nice piece of kit, the 2D screen quality is just amazing. If he has any problems point him in the direction of www.matroxusers.com there he will be able to find a lot of Matrox experts who'll be able to help him out in no time.

I was just about to say that too The only application I really use from a single user point of view is EasyCD Creator and my TEAC CD-RW. Oh and of course a few cheap CD-R's - one hour later and I'm ready for a wipe and reinstall.

You can actually get a dark monitor repaired but as the other posters have said it is still time to start saving for a new one as the "repair" will actually shorten the life (or what life is left) of your unit. Basically the voltage to the tube can be increased, this will result in the picture being lightened, probably back to how it always was. However this is done at the expense of life expectancy, more voltage and it will then finally die on you sooner. Obviously if this monitor is still under warranty get it sent back. If it's out then take it to a repair center and they will be able to do the above thing - please do NOT attempt it yourself, there are some major capacitors in a monitor that will literally throw you accross a room if you touch them.

Oh IBM are very much big boys in the chip market. I work for a company that designs & makes STB's. Our latest range of boxs are using some really smart IBM chips for audio/video etc. I think this is a very good move, AMD doesn't exactly have money coming out of their ears - IBM do. This gives AMD both some expertise in the market and also some potential capitol - this is a good move if they ever really want to compete with Intel in all markets.

Quote: Thanks for all the suggestion. I told him about them and he tried with everything except power, RAM, and VGA and everything except power and VGA. The monitor didn't do anything. I think you're right about the motherboard, BladeRunner. Well actually Jimf43 suggested motherboard before me, but I'm happy to take the credit Motherboards can be funny, you can go through loads of them without a single problem, then one will come along and it will be DOA - it doesn't happen often but when it does it can be annoying. Get back in touch with the vendor he purchased it from, this is a DOA that the vendor can sort out be swapping quickly, you shouldn't be forced to go to ABit to get an RMA here - that can take a while.

Highly unlikely to be a faulty CPU. In the numerous years I've been working with computers I've only ever seen two dead Intel CPU's and they were a long time ago. I'd be much more inclined to point my finger at the motherboard.

Norton Corporate 7.6 doesn't require any updates to run under WinXP - That is our standard version here at work and it is happily running on the three WinXP machines we have. As for better to use Norton 2003 for home - well you've got no choice, unless you fancy buying the minimum of ten licenses I believe it is of the corporate edition for use at home.

So it has It hadn't been when I posted What people get up to in their own time is up to them, I'll call anybody admitting to pirating & theft every name under the sun but I really felt this post went above and beyond all I'd read here before.

Oh come on Mods. This is taking the piss. We have a total newbie posting his first ever post advertising pirate and illegal DVD's. Will somebody please remove this post and ban the user?

Anything by Matrox. Nothing either ATI or NVidia can release can still come close to the 2D quality Matrox provide - well not exactly true, they are getting closer but still no cigar. Parhellia would be a good choice but certainly not the cheapest card in the world.

I must admit I do still have a floppy in my system. As somebody else said BIOS updates are easy this way (although up[censored] from within Windows has never caused me a problem on Intel manufactured motherboards). Also things like firmware updates for DVD-ROM, SCSI Controllers etc seem to be that little bit easier from floppy too. Floppy is the last remnants of FAT in my system.