Dirty Harry

Man, Microsoft is annoying... This worked for me: 1. download the stupid web up[censored] app ie5setup as you have to do that even just to update IE 5.5 with SP2. The method described below used to work with some earleir IE versions (4.0?), thats why I decided to give it a try as MS apparently states that it is not possible to D/L the update as a separate package. 2. run the stupid piece of potential spyware (as a wise man said, "the question with Microsoft is not are you paranoid, but are you paranoid enough") 3. This created the directory (or just added the downloaded files) to the directory C:\Windows Update Setup Files. Copy this directory to another machine and start the ie5setup.exe that is included (again) regardless of where you D/L and started the original file from. --- Maybe its a good idea to rename or delete the directory if you have it before you begin, that way it will only contain the IE 5.5 SP2 update files, in my case 8.6 Mb (update from 5.5 only). This method will only work with the same Windows version. I've just tested it on two PC:s running W2K and it worked fine, altogh the installation as such had the usual bunch of Microsoft bugs. A more exquisit way of doing it would perhaps be to download the distribution kit bloatware you'll find somehere at MS BS site where the most simplest necessities are moved around and redesigned almost daily, to no use. Believe me, this whole circus is just one step ahead on MS strategy to have you pay rent per minute for using any of their products. They already charge for updates, W3.0-3.1-W95-W98-W98SE-Wme-W2k soon XP. Guess how many upgrade CD's I have ? And each version was supposed to be stable -pfuui. So - two PC's updated and some steam let out... H.

It used to be http://corporate.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp to down complete updates sr packs etc. No time to take more than a quick look but it didn't seem to contain the complete packages anymore. Let me know if you find it there. Other solutions, anyone, this is much needed H

Check out this page: http://www.xbitlabs.com/mainboards/socketa-chipsets/ All you wanted to know about Socket A chipsets (including what Mommy didn't tell you) H

New ??? They were released July 24th, fixed and re-released July 25th. Next time around I be happy to report new drivers a bit faster than this if I come across them - where to ? BTW, these drivers were discussed in a thread at the HW forum around July 25th / 26th .... H.

More is better ! The one who dies with the most RAM wins ! H.

Can't promise that this solves your problem with HPNA but this worked for me: The occasional but extremely annoying "network cable unplugged" blip was caused by the NIC:s auto determination of the Networks speed (10/100). After going into the Device Manager / properties and changing the speed setting from Auto to a fixed value (100) the balloons popped for good. If you have a slower LAN set the speed lower. You have to do this on all NICs. H.

Which DI version?? Which filesystem? Can /have you defragged the drive? Never had any problems with Drive Image, but can't recall that I ever needed to make an compressed image exceeding 3GB, I tend to keep my primary partition well below 10GB, and back up other stuff by other means. From the sound of it, something is wrong with your disk or FAT, try running checkdisk. If you have Partition magic, check the volume with that. When you say rebooted from DOS is that DI starting from Windows or do you have DOS installed also? Can you replicate the problem? BTW, you can reduce the size of the image file a lot by booting to DOS and deleting the swapfile and hiberfil.sys before you do the image. W2K rebuilds them upon startup. Also, always use high compression, its faster! H.

What speed(s) are you connecting at and what's the max supported by your modem ? Meanwhile, after checking EddiE's suggestions you can try the following too: - Your modem is correctly installed, no exclamation marks in device manager, right ? - Test other ISP's, line quality varies. - Bad pings (if you mean you get replies but they are slow)are propably not caused by a bad phone line, but by bad or crowded ISP. What are your pings ? Get one of the visual ping tracing tools (try Tucows and the gang) and see where on the route your problem starts. - Get a download manager (Go!zilla, Flashget etc), they open several download channels at once and you can utilize your bandwidth to max - have the phone company check the quality and the "noise" on the line. Check the wiring & cables (especially self made ones) Wouldn't ISDN/ADS/Cable be an option ?? H.

This must be a record. 6 out of 8 posts made by the guy who started the thread. Brian, obviously you are determined to break the 10000 post barrier, but please.... H.

Just got myself the Hauppauge WinTV Theater (mod 498) PCI card. Works great except for the sound. The sound is sporadic, most of the time the wintv2000 and win32 apps start without any sound. Switching channels, swithing to fullscreen or mute/unmuteing a couple of times turns on the sound. On the other hand, if the apps start with sound (rarely) the sound stops after switching channels etc. In device manager the VFW drivers show up fine, no exclamation marks but the properties for the Audio one show "no drivers loaded for this device" but I think this is normal. The TV card is OK, I've tested with another one too. Any tips anyone?? Anybody have a similar combo working ? Essential specs: ABIT KA7-100 with AMD KA7 Athlon 800 256 MB of PC133 SDRAM Hauppage Win/TV Theater (model 498) PCI, driver 3.09 (3.06 also tested) TV system is PAL Soundblaster Live! 1024, newest drivers and liveware Asus V-7700 AGP (Nvidia Geforce 2 GTS), 32 MB DDR SGRAM Cambridge Soundworks speakers, Windows 2000, SR-2, DX 8 Thanks, H.

Wouldn't it be possible to set the size to 0? Just test it! I don't think this should ever be done though as W2K always needs a swap file, at least in case of a system crash. BTW, Putting the swap file on a different drive (not just partition) may speed things up. H.

HEy "now", don't feel shot down :)that was not intended. I just doubted the sr-2 theory/solution, especially as you didn't mention first that you had tried it several times. On my end, I have W2K on several machines and have done several reinstalls and haven't noted any problems with SR-2. H

dunno where the big headache is with via chipsets but perhaps they are quirkier than some others. The Ali Magic is suposed to perform slow so I wouldn't go for that. Personally I believe that if you want the newest and greatest (1400Mhz Athlon + DDR mem)you will encounter some trouble, regardless of chipset. Remember how the BX chipset mobo improved over the years? On my part I'm getting the Abit KG7-Raid (AMD 761 chipset) and a KA7 1400/266 as soon as I get it, hopefully next week (true since june, but now I have a est delivery date at least). To me that board looks like the hottest stuff around and the candidate No:1 for king of DDR O/C boards. Check this link: http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/mainboards/abit/kg7/ Hell, maybe I'll just frame it and hang it on the wall... I'd advice against PC2100 memory, the few bucks you spend extra to get 2400 is well worth it. H.

Look "now", aren't you jumping to conclusions a bit hastely? You had a problem, reinstalled the OS but not SR2 and conclude thats where the problem was. How do you know that the cure wasn't the reinstall and SR-2 would work fine now? I, for my part very much doubt that SR-2 has anything to do with it. I had the same problem for a long while, but it seems to have disappeared now (SR-2 installed and all). I think that some shareware was the culprit, or to be more precise I suspect a certain piece of freeware that improved the functionality of a certain shareware. You don't happen have WinCom 4.52 running ? It could very well have been something else also, re-boots only occured about every 5 hrs of active use or so it hard to tell. Your temp reading sounds like normal (not knowing what CPU), but readings aren't facts. Run the box with the case open a week and see if that helps. If you have fiddled around inside lately, check that everything is firmly connected. IMO 300W is enough if you are not o/c heavily, especially as your sys used to work and you haven't added or changed cards (especially the graphics card) Check the system logs and see if they give a clue to what caused the reboot. Also check the essential services for what action is set under recovery, First/Second/Subsequent failures ? Do you have it set tothe setting "reboot the computer" ? Change that and see if you start getting a BSOD instead. H

Thanks for the tips guys, well, the new WDM drivers (2.26 /July 24th) were really different, they load fine and turn the WinTV app into a automatic re-booter. Just start WinTV and the machine reboots. Handy, but not what I was looking for. The beta version of them worked however, but left me with the sound problem. The new WinTV app (3.21) in combination with the WDF drivers work best, about 80% of the time. Oddly enough it seems evry installation turns out to be a little bit more or less effective and it seems that having the sound controls on the desktop improves the results. Anyhow, along came Ultrix with the phenomenal Dscaler tip, works really well and has sound every time. Great freeware app, altough it doesn'thave as glossy interface as WinTV. Just have to figure out how to name the channels though... Next week I'll get a new mobo (KG7 is coming!) and do a fresh install, lets see how that turns out. H.

I'm reading and reading but fail too understand what Great Advice our Great Administrator SHS is giving in his message. Dear SHS, could you explain to a clueless mortal helpseeker what those dear magic words of wisdom mean ? I'm happy to learn that you know (but don't tell) where to get the very latest drivers that are not for my card, but what precise piece information did you attempt to share ? kEViNoPolY's tip was much appreciated, yes it did change things, lots of sound this time(pink noice, occasionaly even the real thing) but the picture turned red & green. This seems like the way to go, I'll keep on testing. It seem that different video drivers react differently, last test was with Nvidia 12.90. Sigh, there are an endless chain of WinTV/Nvidia/Soundblaster driver combinations left to test... Meanwhile, if someone has some advice or can confirm that this combo really can work I'd be grateful for a post. H.

All of the sudden I can't burn anything with Nero anymore, I get a #%¤½* IDE/SCSI error, even in test mode. Nero used to burn just fine on my system. Not sure when it started, haven't added any burning software nor hardware lately. Tried upgrading Nero (5.0.0.9->5.0.4.4->5.5.0.3), clean install of Nero after complete reg cleanout, updated and checked aspi layers, burn at 1x, burning image files, burning a few files, different disks etc but no avail. #%¤½*^, loosing my nerves soon. The drive seems OK, CDRWin burns just fine with it, but I need to get Nero Back and working. Any ideas what could be wrong, anyone... Where should I start the troubleshooting? The drive is a Ricoh 7040A firmware upgraded to 7060A (1.70), Mobo KA7-100, OS W2K. H.

Thanks Clutch and Xiven, indeed, the 4in1 4.28 was the problem. 4.29a installed and the room is quietly filling with smoke ! H.

Abit KA7-100 MoBo, comes with the VIA VT8371(KX133) /VIA 686 chipset. Your question brings it to my mind though, I did update the VIA 4-1 drivers from 4.23 to 4.28 recently, could that be behind this mess? H.

IMHO, nothing beats Famatechs Remote administrator, its light, cool, and you ´get the remote machines screen in a window. You can use the mouse to reboot remote or you can just select it directly. Check it out at http://www.famatech.com/ H

Here some ideas: ...was reformatted... What was formatted ? Is w2K starting Ok ? What file system do you use? You could try to boot into safe mode, shut down properly and go again. Doesn't cost much, anyhow and helps sometimes. Could it be that you have a boot sector that was not reformatted? Other than this I can't see another option than to fdisk the drive to new partition(s), format them and see if that helps. Maybe you want to try a fresh install first. If I understand your post correctly you can do a normal startup but not a restart, the system just hangs when shutting down.It could be the power management, are you / were you using ACPI ? Can you hibernate ?Maybe the new install switched the power management for you. That seems to cause similar probs fore some. ACPI is great if *all* your hardware supports it, but it is picky. BTW, try DriveImage or Ghost next time, that way you get the old system back 1:1 in a few minutes. H. [This message has been edited by Dirty Harry (edited 29 March 2001).]

My LAN runs just fine, or so I thought. Today I needed to copy some large files (40-60MB pieces) between the two machines but run into trouble. After a while I get complete standstill, and later a message that the target drive is no longer available on the network. Had to disable/enable the connection or even reboot to get it up again. Otherwise the LAN is running OK. This is replicable, the transfer of a single large file mostly fails, but sometimes it works. A bunch of smaller files seem to transfer OK. I have the same NIC's on both machines (3com Etherlink 3C905C-TX). The switch is a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL router BEFSR41. I occasionally encounter a "network cable unplugged" message for a few seconds every now and then. On the net I've found several people complaining over this annoying message, but no solution. Now to the odd part, one of the NIC's is not flashing any lights at all (its on a W98 box). Just sits there completely black but works fine (except for the above mentioned)The other one (on a W2K box )is shining its pale green limelight on the dust behind the PC. Isn't the green light supposed to be lit no matter what if the LAN is OK? Anyone have a guess what's wrong ?? H.

Thanks for the tips, forgot to mentioned that I have the latest flash for the Linksys (1.37 I recall). Did you use a 3com Nic ? They are supposed to be good, maybe thats the problem? H.

Thats a new one... What if you set it to hibernate in 30 mins, does it still take 12 hrs for it? Here the obvious checks that come to my mind, maybe you have checked them already: - Other Power saving settings in W2k and Bios ? - Do you have a NIC which is set to "allow this device to wake up the PC" - Any othe device which could be active and keeping the PC from going to sleep ? - Tested with a different Keyboard or mouse (stuck key etc) - Is your PC on a boat that rolls back and forth in a sea that calms down for the night? H.

Just tried to upgrade my W2k box with the new 2446 beta, but it didn't work. Not tragic, can do a full install but I wonder what goes wrong / if anybody has succeeded with an upgrade install and has some tips. Here what happens: Started the upgrade install (from within W2K) starts fine, boots, copies the files, boots ... boot menu (dual boot to Dos7, just as it was with w2k) starts, flashes the new intro screen, and BAM, blue screen saying it stopped to prevent damage to the hardware, blah blah, blah. As I said, install from scratch works just fine. Here's the essential hardware: ABIT KA7-100 Athlon 800 @800 128 MB of PC100 SDRAM 128 MB of PC133 SDRAM IBM 45GB -7200 rpm ATA100 IBM 27GB -7200 rpm ATA66 (boot drive during install) Advansys SCSI Controller SCSI Jaz drive Matrox Millennium G400 DH Asus 50x CD-R Ricoh 7060A CD-RW Soundblaster Live! 1024 3COM Dynalink 3C905C-TX-M NIC