Bursar

Haven't a lot of people had problems with Kenwood drives and the copy protection system used in some games? I recently got an AOpen 52x Internal EIDE CD-Drive for £30 + VAT (I know this the UK, but I imagine the price would be similar in the US). It replaced my old Sony DDU220E DVD drive (biggest ple of crap ever), and I'm well chuffed.

Windows NT only supports up to Direct X 3. Most games require a much newer version to work properly (or at all). I have seen mentioned on this board several times that there is a hacked version of DX5 that runs under NT. If you search for DX and NT, you're bound to find the thread. However, you may upset the stability of your server by installing it, so if you need your server to work as a server (rather than a games platform), I probably wouldn't bother it. Get Windows 2000 Server (if you can), as it supports Direct X 7.0a, and will run any game that runs under Windows 2000 (just about most of them).

For Deus Ex tweaks, check out - http://www.madonion.com/games/articles/deu[censored]guide/ Also take a look at - http://www.tweak3d.net/ They cover just about everything, so you're bound to find something of use.

Did you install Media Player 7 as part of the upgrades you downloaded? Media Player 7 allows you to write music files to CD, and many users have reported that it has broken their Easy-CD Creator installations. I haven't actually tried my CD-RW drive for writing since installing Media Player 7 (just haven't gotten around to it), but I am expecting it to be broken when I do try it. Try reinstalling Easy-CD Creator and see if that fixes it. As usual, Microsoft are blaming Adaptec, and Adaptec are blaming Microsoft. You may be able to find more info on the Adapatec website though.

4 bits is 16 colour. The startup screen is 640x480x4 because at that point, Windows doesn't know what monitor is attached, so it plays it safe.

Personally, I'd do it the other way around. I'd setpu a FAT32 C drive, and install Windows98 on it. I'd then setup a FAT32 D drive and install Win2k onto it. By doing it that way, you can share files between the 2 operating systems. If you put Win2k on an NTFS partition, Win98 won't be able to read it. This may or may not be important to you, but it's worth bearing in mind.

I've just found out that my card is fried. I took it out and tried it in another machine, and that got stuck in VGA mode as well. Oh well, out with the cheque book!

Yeah, I installed them today. Big thumbs down!! I'm stuck in VGA mode. I can't even get back to an earlier release now! I did do some registry tweaking a while ago that included stopping PowerDesk from running at startup. I didn't think what I did was that bad, as the system has been running fine with these tweaks for ages. Put the new drivers on, and everything has gone belly up.

Unfortuantely, you cannot access NTFS from a DOS command prompt. FDISK will show the NTFS partition as Non-DOS, so don't worry about that bit too much. It might be worth checking the SCSI termination on the drive. If it has come out of a SCSI chain, it might need changing.

Can you not run the executable as a service? If you set it as a SYSTEM service, it should start automatically when the machine boots, and won't require a logon. You should be able to search the Microsoft Knowledgebase on how to get applications to run as services.

How was your system performing under 9x? Did everything run fine or did you experience lock-ups there as well? And how did you install Win2k? Was it a clean install, or did you upgrade from 9x? If it was an upgrade, you might want to try wiping the machine and doing a clean install. This should clear the problem if it is anything to do with a 9x upgrade. I notice from your sig that you run 1024x768 on a 14" monitor. That must hard on the eyes!!

The main problem is your Intel graphics card. These cards are (how can I say this politely) crap. You need to replace it with a decent card. Something like Matrox or something with an Nvidia chipset. The Voodoo card you have is only used for games that support the Glide API. This is very different to D3D. I've been running Win2k since release and I think the only games I have that don't work are old DOS based games (although some of them do work, just no sound), or really rubbish ones that I don't play anyway. As a gaming platform, Win2k is absolutely fine.

2) TweakUI loads when your computer boots because it is in the Control Panel, and all the modules in the Control Panel are loaded automatically. To stop it loading, you need to delete the tweakui.cpl file, and search your registry and remove all entries to this file. Any changes you made using TweakUI will remain.

I use Norton A/V 2000 and it works flawlessly. One thing to look for (which most anti-virus software *should* have nowadays) is the ability to scan your emails as you download them. Don't use mcaffee as I have had loads of problems with it. It just about halved the performance of our Windows 2000 machines when it was installed. Running under NT or 9x was fine however.

Chance's response is the best bet. My second PC at home has some fairly rubbish active/passive speakers attached to it. When the speakers are off, all volumes are controled by the volume applet, and not the volume dial on the speakers. When the speakers are active (ie switched on), then the volume dial on the speakers works and I can control the volume properly.

The phones in the UK are RJ-11 as well. Our entire office building is filled with RJ-45 based wall ports. We can then just patch in a port to connect a PC. If we want to plug a phone into a port, we need to use an RJ-11 to RJ-45 convertor box.

You don't need 10 PCI slots, just lots of Matrox cards with dual heads. Check out http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/g200_mm/mm_support.htm Upto 16 monitors!!

I get the following error in the Application Event log on both my home and work PC: Event Type: Error Event Source: WinMgmt Event Category: None Event ID: 43 Date: 04/09/2000 Time: 10:10:35 User: N/A Computer: XXX Description: WMI ADAP failed to connect to namespace \\.\root\cimv2\MS_809 with the following error: 0x8004100e The above is from my work PC. According to the Microsoft Knowledgebase, there is a solution, but it is only for the Simplified Chinese version, and you have to contact MS. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q259/5/68.ASP I have all the latest service packs, hotfixes, compatibility updates and so-on. I don't think this error is causing me any problems, but it'd be nice to get rid of it. ------------------ PIII 650 Coppermine Intel 440BX-2 Motherboard 2x256MB PC 100 RAM Maxtor 92049U6 20.4GB 7200RPM UDMA66 Maxtor 52049U4 20.4GB 7200RPM UDMA66 Matrox Millenium G400 MAX AOpen 52x IDE CD-ROM Yamaha CRW4416S SCSI CD-RW Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer USB Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Pro US Robotics Sportster Flash v90 External modem Iiyama Vision Master Pro 17 3Com EtherLink XL PCI (3c900B Combo) Adaptec 2940 Ultra Wide SCSI controller Sound Blaster Live! Value Windows 2000 Professional

I tried it but it didn't work. As soon as I rebooted, there was a fresh entry in the Application Log for the exact same error. Other suggestions appreciated.

I think people on this board have already reported that Version 4 of the software works ok on Win2k. Unfortunately, you can't download it (legally anyway). If it didn't come with your controller, you could try contatcing Microsoft to see if they can send it to you on CD.

Have to put in my two pennies worth: Caffine free diet Coke! Top drink. Tates almost as good as the full fat caffine loaded normal Coke.

It should be possible. If you install Win98 first, you can tell it to install to D:\Windows You can then do the Win2K install to C:\Winnt The only thing you need to remember is that when installing software under 98, remember to put it into d:\program files. This'll help keep everything nice and clean and seperated.

The Win2K ICS doesn't have any problems with ports. You just share a DUN connection and that's it. There are some advanced features that you can set for various bits and bobs, but you probably won't have to use them. Give it a go and see how you get on. I will admit that my second PC is a Win98 SE machine, and it shares the connection from my main Win2K PC. I have used the second PC for general web-browsing and IRC, and they have both performed flawlessly.

Long time no speaky! Anyway, how about this: FC-PGA VIA 594x ATX + Firewire only £95.00 + VAT from Dabs. It's a Socket 370 board, with a VIA chipset. Not quite what you were after, but not bad to start with. Alternatively, check out: http://www.pccablesdirect.com/products/1394dv.htm It's a write up of the Pyro DV card. You can buy the card from Simply at £69 + VAT It give 3 firewire ports, and comes with one cable. Beware that cables run for approximately £50 each. Laters.

To be honest, if you're going to be developing anything (apart from headaches), you're better off using a proper operating system. Use NT or Win2k for development, and WinME for games, as that's about all it is going to be good for. Was it an offical thing that said PWS would not ship with ME, or have you just got a beta and it hasn't been included? If it's the beta, try not to panic. Things could change between now and release day.