Cardinal

It seems that I am not alone in suffering the problem of 'IRQ sharing'. There are now many posts regarding the issue. Most people seem to state that as long as ACPI is enabled in your OS then IRQ sharing will be automatically used. And by changing your system type under hardware settings to 'standard computer' (instead of an ACPI computer) you can then automatically assign devices to IRQ's yourself. Well in my case, this is not true. I have succesfully set my system up in w2k as a 'standard computer' but my two major components (video card/sound card)are still sharing the same IRQ (in my case, #11). Some people will claim that this won't cause a problem (in ACPI mode anyway) but lets face it, when running a program that utilises these cards heavily (like any 3d game) there are going to be problems, hence, my pc locks up. Someone suggested physically changing the pci slot that my sound card uses (this was correct in theory, as some pci's share IRQ's with the AGP slot) I tried that, and upon booting up every time, it detects the card, and allocates it IRQ 11. I DO have free IRQ's available (eg, 10) Anyway, the microsoft online knowledge base proved useless with IRQ allocation. So if anyone can help (yes I know this topics getting stale) it would help myself, and many others. Cardinal

It really depends on your knowledge of computer software. Windows 2000, being based on the NT kernel is so much more stable as anyone can tell you. It's a very versatile and powerful operating system that (after some tweaking) is actually faster than windows 98. The problem is though, many hardware companies (like creative)are so slack they don't release drivers for windows 2000. Or if they do, they are poor in quality compared to win98. Therefore, support for hardware is slightly less in win2000 then it is in win98. Most games (new or old) will run right out of box in 98 but not in 2000. If you have relatively new hardware and want a stable OS go win2000. If you want to lead a simplistic life and feel under confident with your computer skills, go win 98.

http://www.reactorcritical.com has older drivers.

After downloading every single patch, fix and update for windows 2000. WIll it be worth installing the service pack? w2k is probably as stable as it's ever going to get. Lets face it, Most of the problems are not with flawed library files, but rather flawed code within the OS. SO what possible benefits can one receive with the SP?

Hi. Office 2k sp1 just repeatedly prompts for my office 2k cd even though it's in the cd drive. Anyone got or heard of a patch (read 'crack') for this?

hey there. Is it version 7.0? remember it's a beta still and a terrible one at that. It wouldn't be a codec problem so scratch that out. I'd say you have selected 'view video in full screen' checked somewhere. sorry, not much help.

rocko => lamer.

I have a similar problem to 80sgamer. My system is set up to dual boot win98 and w2k and under both os's my vid card (riva tnt2ultra) and soundcard (sblive) are both sharing irq 11. First I tried to disable irq steering - my mobo uses the via apollo pro chipset, (yeah, another problematic via I hear you say)anyway, that didn't work. So I did what someone posted, re-installed w2k with the 'f7' trick which means my pc is now listed as a standard pc. But they're still sharing. The Automatic settings tab is dimmed under my hardware settings making it impossible to disable it. My bios (the latest) does not have a PNP section. Am I royally screwed or is there a solution? (by the way, I also tried the same thing under 98 and it didn't work there either.

Potheads. Didn't install anything? by the way, they 'are' officially posted up at the via site. has anyone installed them yet, if so, the irq miniport driver?

My isp, like many suggests using their proxy in my dial up connection. Whats the point though, does anyone know exactly how they work? The pro's and cons of using a proxy connection? Which is faster?

Don't bother, its a bad idea.

God, Via has ruined my life. Gave my brother my old SOYO board because my riva wasn't compatible with it (should of stuck with the voodoo 3) and bought a GA-6VX7 and slapped a celeron 466 (@525mhz) in it. Stability went out of the freakin window. Lockup after lockup. Someone said 'use the via drivers' did that. More problems. I used to run win 98, that was sad. Am now happy with w2k (when it doesn't lock up). Whats the go with these latest Inf drivers from via, worth the hassle? Whats this talk of editing the sys file? I read somewhere that via were high when they claimed w2k fully supported their chipset straight out of the box. And that you must use the viaagp.sys. The only problem is, how?

I'm not sure if you suffer the same problem, but every install of w2k acts the same upon booting up to your GUI. It seems to have finished loading, the hard drive is inactive. But clicking on any of the icons and/or folders results in no response. It's like the system has crashed, but I wait 15 seconds or so and then they respond.

Like most people who are interested in getting the best out of W2k I was greatly interested in the services. Many sited recommend disabling them to decrease boot times and to free avaliable ram. However, after doing what this site suggested (changing many supposedly needless automatic services to manual)I was unable to access my isp's server. I could connect, but it was not communicating with my computer at all, I would only receive constant DNS lookup errors. I tried everything, in the end reinstalling the tcp/ip stack in windows 2000 was the only way to fix this. I've seen the same list of services 'safe to disable' on many sites so be cautious.

Ok, let me rephrase that, messing with services is NOT a bad idea - If you know exactly what consequences disabling a particular service concurs. I didn't. Still don't. Many American ISPS automatically assign DNS numbers to their clients upon connection. Mine doesn't however, I have to use a set DNS number. Changing DNS client to manual screwed up my DUN connection because with my ISP, I have to log on to a network. Windows apparently thinks it's a 'windows 2000 domain' anyway.. it's complex, and I don't know much about it.

I emailed creative about my game pad. a cobra serial pad. Do the bastards ever intend to release support for this in w2k? not likely.. looks like another useless creative product I own. Lazy wankers.

Sorry Kelly, I can't offer any help. I can say I experienced the same exact problem and have to assume it's a flaw in ie5.5 Many other things happened, like the first browser window I would open would just freeze on a blank screen, double clicking on IE again opened up another sucessful browser window. I reinstalled windows 2000. You may have to do the same.

Lock ups? I've lived with them for almost a year a now. In any OS, while doing any sort of operation, whether it be playing an mp3, downloading a file, playing a 3d game or while the system is just idle; - it locks up. A complete freeze. Mouse cursor is frozen, system halts. I have tried everything. My sytem is not overclocked, I have to assume it's a fault in my motherboard or an incompatability with my ram( or an error in my one of my systems bus's)