Brian Frank

Does UF stand for yoU Fart? and does P-A stand for Pansy @$$? Im not really crazy about XP's extended hardware requirements though. Yeah, weve got uber fast systems, but does the OS being used have to suck up more resources? Hands down ME sucks like nothing else...including Jdulmage's mother's blowjob. ME sucks. Media Player sucks in comparison with Winamp and anything else you can get. Lets see here what else, besides the entire OS itself sucks, in ME sucks. Movie Maker, this so-called "improved stability"--Ive had more crashing with ME than with the rest of the 9x line---, the fact that you have to pay for newer versions of the software you already own just to run them under ME. ME is to Microsoft what the memory translator hub on the i820 chipset was to Intel...one big disaster. With XP, I have 2 computers and its very likely that I will end up with more. I dont want to shell out $300 for each computer to have an OS. MS has had problems with Office and product keys preventing the use of Office on more than 1 computer-owned by the same person. I really dont want to lose an arm and a leg to MS everytime I go to their latest OS. Another thing: give me 1 good reason why I need a skinable OS? That's nice and all, but what use, other than eye candy is it good for. Lets remember that XP is in beta right now, and things could take a turn for the worst like ME. I dont think it will go downhill, or not be quite as bad as ME, but XP isnt offical yet. Win2k eliminated the need for a lot, but not all restarts, XP may prove even better if the need to restart after installing programs and possibly even drivers is taken away. 2k has proven to be very capable in many aspects and has become a gaming platform. I think that the fiasco with ME could potentially hurt XP's release. Im a lot less ready to jump to it after my encounter with ME, because things became worse after the upgrade. Win2k is great.

Does it have compatability with 98 &NT4.0 or just Win9x. If its just 9x, try the Win2k compatability app on the Win2k cd. If the game works with 9x &NT4.0, you should be able to run it. What are your specs? I cant really say what the problem is, cause I dont have the game. Try the compatablity app off the Win2k cd.

C'mon here people, dont let this thread die! Heres a way to make this go on. WinXP sucks. WinXP sucks like WinME. WinXWinXP sucks like WinME.P sucks like WinWinXP sucks like WinME. WinXP sucks like WinME. WinXP sucks like WinME. WinXP sucks like WinME. WinXP sucks like WinME. Well that ought to make it longer, and hopefully irritate enough people to make this longer.

Do you have the Gigabyte GA-5AX? I have a friend who has that, and a couple of people on this forum who have had trouble with this board. It seems that the board doesnt like video cards too well. As for the IRQs, leave them alone. Unless you really want to get a headache, leave them alone. Theres nothing you really want to mess with. I can personally attest to the only way to change these settings results in a reinstall of Win2k. I dont really try to reinstall unless things screw up really bad.

Ureal Tournament should run under NT...its listed as one of the supported OSs. If you have just a 56k modem or worse, Id recommend against downloading any demos, as they will be anywhere from 30-50 megs each and that will take some serious download time. See if some one you know has some cds that came with a pcgaming mag (i.e. PC Gamer) as they have demos. If you have broadband, guesstimate about an hour at the most for a game demo download. If your bound and determined to download a demo, do it at night if youve got an POTS modem; with broadband anytime is a good time, unless someone wants to surf the net on your computer. Most newer games run on NT and 2k, but the variety isnt as broad because many companies didnt consider NT as a gaming platform like Win9x. Especially if dos is a factor in games, like DukeNukem3d or Wolfenstien, you will have some problems getting those to run. Supposedly, DosFreak has a good knowledge of running dos games under 2k. As for downloading sites, just type in the game youd like to try in a search engine. If you know the manufacturer of the game, type it in after http:\\www.bloodygamemaker.com for example (im not sure thats a real site though). Multiplayer seems to be pretty bloody. UT has a multiplayer option that pits bots against you so you dont even have to be online. There also some team games that give you bots as teammates, again you dont have to be online.

Lexluthor, some of us do this thing, you may have heard of it, its called "dual-booting". Some people like to run games on 98 instead of 2000 for personal preference. In order to have significantly less problems between two different filesystems, the entire harddrive(s) are formatted as FAT32, because 9x cant read NTFS. Quit being a f*cking @$$hole! Id give you the finger, but I dont know how to give it in this forum.

Well, if those games have 98/95 & NT4.0 compatability, they should run. If they're dos-based, you may not be able to. Ive seen stuff about getting dos games to run under Win2k...but I havent tried them. If you're feeling daring, you could do a dual boot, but both 2k and 98 have to be formatted to FAT32. Your games may just not work no matter what, in that case, see if there's a patch for those games. You may have to just ditch those games or go back. Are you using the program Bleem? Its a program that allows you to run Playstation games under windows, and I think theres some program, maybe a Sega version of Bleem, that does that. If you are doing that bleem might not be usable under 2k.

Look, if I buy an OS, I'd like to buy 1 copy, even if I have more than 1 pc. Plus, Windows, even an upgrade, is pretty pricey. The upgrade for Win2k was almost $200! Its hard to say if people will upgrade to XP. Yeah, new pcs will ship with xp preinstalled, but for me,2k is the best os Ive run. Oh, yeah, remember MS "innovates" whatever someone else came up with first.

Yeah, dont get XP or any OS when it comes out. I got ME the day it came out, and Im still kinda regretting it. I have some small complaints about Win2k, but Ive been able to get most of them taken care of. I consider it to be a well done OS, and am not even sure if XP is a consideration for me yet. Im not ready to jump to a new OS after my run in with ME. XP will probably be a lot better than ME, but you cant say that for sure. Wait, like, 3 months so you can see what the major problems are and then go to it. For me, Im very pleased with 2k and its versatile platform. Ive had far less problems with it than 98 and especially ME. Ive had to reinstall a few times, but that been from user error. I havent had to restart a whole lot except for a few overclocking steps. I love the networking on 2k, ME is horrible. I cannot get ME to network with a 2000 computer and I dont know why. Oh,well its on my dual boot system, so I just have to be in 2k to do good networking.

That will be pretty good, you may consider upping your ram a little if you notice a slowdown in performance, as Win2k is probably a little more robust than NT. Ive never run NT before, so I cant say, but you are in a good position with your specs.

Yes, leave IRQs alone unless you are having a problem. While you can change it to standard pc from acpi compliant pc, I didnt have any luck. When I changed it, windows didnt use my keyboard or mouse after it rebooted, so I had to reinstall This IRQ thing is normal, leave it alone or have fun pulling your hair out.

Isnt it kinda inconsiderate of MS to release a new, latest & greatest OS every 2 years? I mean, this is more of a problem for businesses than anything, because of all the techs they have to have, IT techs have to have a good knowledge and maybe have to be certified for it. If they dont then, they'll have to within the next 2 releases of Windows, or MS might drop the support for older Windows. And somewhere along the line, you'll have to upgrade the hardware...Plus, remember the licensing fees? No wonder some companies are turning to Linux or Unix.

Yeah, if you overclock video cards, you can only take them to a certain point. If your overclocking, either drop the clock down a few notches or set it to the default clock. If your not overclocking, check the bios stuff and also look at new drivers too. I dont have a GF, but I do have a Voodoo 4 and I cant OC the core clock faster than 10Mhz over or my games start locking up.

I thought so. Ive tried loading 98 straight off the ata100s, but I never was successful, mainly because I had no way to add a driver on the install with 98.

Well, any OS can and will have problems. If you like NT, you may want to stick with it. If youve got at least a 400MHz PII or equivalent and 128MB ram, you'll be fine. Win2k does reqire a good amount of ram to really run well, if your running at least 256 megs, you'll be in even better shape. Since your running CAD on your system, its probably well to do, but since I havent seen your specs, I cant rightly say. In comparison with WinME, Win2k is perfect. 2000 has flaws, NT has flaws, Linux/Unix has flaws,...any OS will have problems. Really, if youve got 400MHz and 256megs of ram, your in pretty good shape. Lets see your specs though, like clutch said.

Get as many fans as you can put in your system. The more the better.

Look, I dont know your mobo, but Ive got an Asus A7V and here's what I did. Load the drivers from the motherboard or scsi or raid card onto a floppy. If they wont fit or you just want to get Win2k installed just plug it into the standard IDE controller if possible. If you only have 2 ATA100 controllers on the mobo, you will not have any problems unless the board is bad or some bios setting. Now that Im totally off what I was saying about loading drivers onto a floppy. If they fit, and they should, press F6 when Win2k is setting up and later on it will ask for the manufacturer driver disk. Setup cant use the CD-ROM for any drivers, so it is important that the necessary drivers are on floppy. Could you give us your mobo or scsi/ata100/raid card. Plugging the hard drive into the regular, not additional, IDE controllers should give you no problems. The C129 is right about F6. When youve got a problem, specifics really help us give you a better picture. The easiest thing to do is plug the hard drive into the standard controller, load Windows, install the driver, then switch the hard drive to the ATA100. The Via busmaster drivers will not have anything important to do with ata100 as far as getting your system to run. If the ATA100 controller, additional ones only, doesnt work still, check your bios and make sure the controller is enabled to load but not boot off the ata100 until windows is loaded.

If you can get it, get a Tyan Trinity 400. It is the best mobo Ive ever seen. If you want something with overclocking capabilities, this wont do it. Other wise go with Asus or Abit.

NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Leave it as is! ME (and for that matter any of the Win9x line) CANNOT READ NTFS. I just read about some guy who had his Win2k partition NTFS and WinME as FAT32 and couldnt boot into ME. Unless you're gonna ditch ME, leave it as is. There is no reason, other than to frustrate yourself, to go over to NTFS. Leave it as FAT32. I dont use NTFS on my one pc solely running Win2k and it runs fine. If you still have dos apps you want to run, you'll have to use Win9x to run it to my knowledge. If you want to convert to NTFS,just wait till something goes really screwy with your system that causes you to reformat. Otherwise, just leave it.

Okay, I just looked at your case: stock up on fans before you upgrade anything else. Make sure the air flow goes in one direction, ideally from front to back.

Okay, first get rid of the stock HSF if you still have one and get a cooler master they're only $10. If you have a place in the front of your case and/or back put fans there. Have air coming in from the front and blowing out the back. If you have a free slot in back, get a slot fan to put there. But do get a least one fan for your case anywhere, and a new HSF. Spend around $30 for the HSF and case fans total. I really dont take the sides off my pcs unless Im working on some hardware. Make sure the airflow is in one direction, that will keep the case temp down alot. Also, if you can, try keeping your pc in a cool, dry place. A basement with a concrete floor is good, works for me. Keeping the case sides on will keep more dust out than if you had them off, plus it keeps you pc safer. Right now, get your cooling taken care of first, then get the hard drive, and then ram-providing you have at least 256 megs. But do get the cooling taken care of first, because that hard drive wont cool off your system any.

Doing a dual boot with Win2k and Win9x, I see. Have the whole hard drive as FAT32. Ive never run into any problems with a dual boot like this. As far as I know, there no utility that will let you convert NTFS to FAT32 without reformatting that partition. Its best to install 9x first then 2k. That was really bad to have mixed filesystems. Yes, you will have to reformat and repartition your hard drive. Life sux, FilthX.

I dont have that board, however, just because someone has successfully run a processor higher than what the board is specified to handle, doesnt make it necessarily a good idea to run a processor, even one thats not overclocked, on it. You may not have any problems at all, but boards have their limitations. I would avoid doing a BIOS update unless youve got a bunch of problems with your configuration, mainly because if you screw up you wont be running that system anymore without a new bios chip. Unless that board has a backup bios chip, you really shouldnt think about up[censored] it. At the speed your at, its probably a good idea to consider a new board to go with a new processor. Im not saying you'll run into any problems, but it seems a little risky to use a processor with a board that doesnt offically support it.

Let me be blunt: Everytime MS comes out with the latest and greatest OS, the system requirements become heftier and that is unacceptable. Just because you can load up your board to 1.5GB of ram and have a 1.5GHz P4, doesn't mean that the OS your running has to be so bloated that it hinders the true performance of the system. I do think that ME is the worst of the 9x line. The NT code is bigger than the 9x code,but it doesnt have to expand with each release. How are you gonna get a streamlined OS if you have to stock up on ram everytime you upgrade.

Yeah, ME is really worthless to upgrade to from 98. Its worthless to upgrade to from 95. Im running it on my test system, but that's it. MS doesnt know how to make good media players anymore. Media Player 7 sucks, and any other product including Real Player is much better. MP7s equilizer is worthless, and doesnt work right. Movie Maker is installed by default and you cannot change that, unless you hack around in the registry and remove it that way. Plus this so-called improved stablility is BS; if anything it's worse under ME