silicongod

What's the best defragger under WinXP Pro for: -> hard disks -> the registry Are they worth running? I've tried Diskeeper 7.0 but it wouldn't complete after hours and hours (40GB HDD about half full). Apparently, version 8.0 doesn't like partitions once Partition Magic has worked with them ;(

Well you're no alone about not knowing much about the intricacies of Windows. I'm no expert myself. My understanding is that there should aways be at least one svchost running, depending on your setup. However, it would probably be useful to find out what sub-services are running in each svchost. You can do this by running "tasklist /svc" in a command prompt window. It's possible that windows has screwed up and is running the same sub-services in multiple svchosts. Some of these sub-services need to be able to access the net (otherwise you can't access the net). Some, however, just want to access the net to, who knows, talk with MS or whatever.

Multiple svchost running is normal and expected. According to MS KB article http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314056, "Svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs)." Basically, it is a host for multiple sub-services so that you don't have lots or background services running (like Windows NT 4.0), you just have a couple (like Windows 2000 and XP). If you reduce the number of background DLL services, the number of svchosts *should* reduce (it might not as well...this is MS after all)

Folks, I recently upgraded to a ATi 9600PRO vid card from a Geforce4 MX 460 (it's a long story). Now, at intermittent intervals the screen will go black and a "Out of scan range" message appears. Sometimes I can shutdown, but others the only option is reset. Once, I got a display of vertical black and white lines like a barcode. I've reseated the card twice. I'm running WinXP Pro SP1a, DirectX 9b on an AthlonXP 1800+ with a (old) ASUS A7V133 mobo (latest BIOS). Not playing games. Catalyst 3.8 drivers are installed I've tried 2 different monitors (a Sony 19" and a CTX 17") and the problem remains. The problem did not occur on the Geforce. I was wondering if there might be a BIOS setting I need to make to make the 8x ATi work on a 4x mobo? Or maybe the vid card is faulty? Thoughts anyone? tia John

Update I installed cat 3.7 last night and the scan range problem *seems* to have gone away. Fingers crossed that stays that way. It seems a shame that for what is supposedly an excellent card, the drivers are so dodgy. Hopefully 3.9 will be better.....

I'm going to try v3.7 tonight. Will post back tomorrow with results... Thanks for your assistance. Cheers John

Tried that. It made no difference. Thanks for the suggestion though. Downloading v3.7 now... Maybe I should have stuck with nVidia? I used DriverCleaner to get rid of the Detonator drivers before I installed the Cats. You don't reckon that there is some part of the detonators still kicking around causing a problem? I've noticed that when the machine hibernates, the progress bar screen does not appear like it used to with the Detonators.

I've been running @ 1280x1024@85Hz for 2 years on the CTX with this Geforce and @ 1600x1200@85Hz for 1 year on the Sony with the same vid card. I'm fairly confident the the monitor can handle it. I've had the cat 3.8 crash on me a couple of times and the VPU Recover thingy kick in each time. It seems to me that the cat drivers are a bit dodgy. Aren't the 3.8's supposed to be the most stabile ones yet? Should I try going to cat 3.7 then? Or an earlier one? Cheers

Folks, What's the best (and easiest) way to completely remove detonator drivers from WinXP? Add/Remove Programs? ;( Cheers

Thanks guys for the info. Much appreciated.

Does anyone know how to change the window font in WinXP? The one I mean is the one that is used inside explorer windows to label icons, etc. There is no GUI in Windows that allows it to be changed (as far as I can tell). Thanks in advance

Thanks dude. Dunno why I didn't think of that myself. Must have had a brain melt. Cheers!

This is going to be a longish one so I appologise up front. I have a Sony CPD-G420 19" CRT monitor running on a GeForce4 MX 460. My machine is a home built Athlon XP 1800+ with 1.15GB RAM. I'm running WinXP Pro with ClearType turned on, Direct 9b, etc. I bought the monitor 'cos I wanted to run it 1600x1200@85Hz for video editing. But, the text quality at that res is almost unreadable and at 1280x1024@100Hz it's fairly poor (it appears fuzzy and broken). All the reviews I found reckon it's the goods but I've been disappointed with it from the time I got it. It's been back to Sony (they had it for 6 weeks!!!!) and they made a minor adjustment to it's convergence and they now say that it is up to spec. They say that the problem is with my video card. This monitor cost me a lot of money and apparently they are no longer sold here in Australia. What I would like to know is if anyone else has had the same problem. Also, is Sony right about the video card? A friend of mine is going lend me a GeforceFX 5200 to try but I don't hold out much hope. My old 17" CTX has good text quality at 1600x1200@75Hz running on a Geforce2 MX. Or should I get rid of it and get a 17" LCD? If so, which one? Thoughts anyone? Thanks in advance, cheers. John

Well folks, I've got an ATi 9600Pro vid card on it's way to me now. I'll post when I give give it a try. Cheers to all.

The text on mine @ the higher res is almost unreadable it's so blurry. At 1280x1024 it's better but still not great. I do have a 2nd machine but I haven't given it a try. It's a much lower spec machine with a Geforce2 MX on it. I might give it a go tonight...Good thought! Why didn't I think of that? ;(

That's not what I wanted to hear mezron I want the monitor to be right 'cos dealing with Sony is an exercise in much frustration. Replacing the vid card is a much easier proposition.

The partition checks out according to Window's disk checker. I wonder if that means there are no problems or that the checker didn't find one ;( I found O&O to leave the partition partially fragmented just like the built-in Windows one (which is a stripped down diskeeper) on both my machines. It was a older version though. Maybe I should try the newest one.

Cheers sapeins74 I'd never heard of that problem before. Thanks for the help.

Thanks for the feedback clutch and sapiens74. Should I give the GeforceFX a try or is the problem an nVidia thing across the board. I ask 'cos I can fairly easily borrow one to try it out, but it's not so easy for me to get hold of an ATi board to test.

So you think that the vid card is the problem then?

I really like vim (the console version) or gvim (the gui version). It's basically unix vi with knobs on. Maybe it's my unix background...

Folks, I've recently got myself a nice new TDK CD-RW drive which came with Nero 5.5 and InCD (dunno what version). After installing both on my Win2k SP2 box and restarting I get the following message: Message>>>> Event Type: Information Event Source: Application Popup Event Category: None Event ID: 26 Date: 06-April-2002 Time: 22:19:22 User: N/A Computer: SILICONGOD Description: Application popup: InCD: InCD.exe - Application Error : The instruction at "0x00455c3d" referenced memory at "0x003e1aa4". The memory could not be "read". Click on OK to terminate the program <<<<End message Of cource InCD then dies. I then downloaded the latest Nero (5.5.8.0) and InCD (3.24) and installed them. Still no go with InCD. Does anyone have any ideas. My machine is as follows: Athlon 900 (no oc) ASUS A7V133 (bios 1008a) 768RAM PC133 Inno3D GF2 MX 2 x Seagate barracuda 3 in hardware RAID-0 (C drive) TDK CD-RW (32/10/40) CD-ROM 10/100 Surecom NIC Windows 2000 SP2 (with all latest hotfixes as at 4/4/2002) IE6 (with all latest hotfixes as at 4/4/2002) Via 4in1 4.38 Promise RAID-0 2.0 (build 24) Official nVidia reference drivers 28.32 Nero 5.5.8.0 InCD 3.24 If anyone can help me out I would be very grateful. If anyone needs any more info then let me know. Thnx

It's amazing to me that someone could release software that is chipset manufacturer specific, and VIA isn't exactly an insignificant name in chipsets. Well never mind, I can live without it now that I know what it is. Thanks again.

Well that pretty much settles it. Both my PCs have VIA chipsets. It's handy to know. It's also good to know that the problem isn't with my PC. It doesn't mention *that* on the info page @ nero.com (nero.com/en/incdinfo.htm) ;-( I'm guessing that you don't have a VIA chipset? Thanks, Sampson, for all your help and effort. It is very much appreciated.

If you can tell me which font to delete to fix this one, it's gone. Well, trying different video drivers didn't help. No surprise there. Maybe when (if) I get XP then all my problems will be solved :-)